Childhood traumas range widely in their severity and impact. A car accident, an earthquake or flood, being attacked by a dog, undergoing a frightening medical treatment?all are distinctly different events yet all provoke common symptoms of psychological trauma. These symptoms may include fearfulness, nightmares, and dramatic behavioral or personality changes. And parental anxiety over changes in a child can, in turn, complicate the healing process. Children and Trauma teaches parents and professionals about the effects of such ordeals on children and offers a blueprint for restoring a child's sense of safety and balance. Cynthia Monahon, a child psychologist who specializes in the treatment of psychological trauma, offers hope and reassurance for parents. She suggests straightforward ways to help kids through tough times, and also describes in detail the warning signs that indicate a child needs professional help. Monahon helps adults understand psychological trauma from a child's point of view and explores the ways both parents and professionals can help children heal.

Because millions of children experience early trauma and attachment disruptions, whether through death, physical or sexual abuse, domestic, community, or school violence, terrorism or other tragic losses, parents and professionals need not just vague theories but a proactive plan for healing relationship avoidant children. Healing Traumatized Children authors Hall, Merkert and Biever have successfully merged mental health, trauma, and attachment, parenting and in-home treatment strategies into a single comprehensive resource for parents and professionals. The authors emphasize the importance of an in-home plan (where the healing must begin), outline how to effectively assemble a support network, provide the keys to the establishment of a therapeutic home environment, discuss psycho-education that identifies the six distinct Trauma Disrupted Competencies and provide multiple types of healing interventions. Healing Traumatized Children confirms that without effective in-home intervention, many of these children will become involved in juvenile and adult justice systems and continue the intergenerational transmission of maladaptive relationships, abuse, and neglect. It is important to remember that these children will eventually become tomorrow's parents.

Featuring in-depth case presentations from master clinicians, this volume highlights the remarkable capacity of traumatized children to guide their own healing process. The book describes what posttraumatic play looks like and how it can foster resilience and coping. Demonstrated are applications of play, art, and other expressive therapies with children who have faced such overwhelming experiences as sexual abuse or chronic neglect. The contributors discuss ways to facilitate forms of expression that promote mastery and growth, as well as how to intervene when play becomes stuck in destructive patterns. They share effective strategies for engaging hard-to-reach children and building trusting therapeutic relationships. This book will be invaluable to mental health professionals working with children, including child psychologists, social workers, play and art therapists, counselors, family therapists, and psychiatrists. It will also˜serve as a supplemental text in clinically oriented graduate-level courses.

Child advocates are becoming increasingly alarmed by the severity of abuse and neglect aimed toward children. Practical suggestions for professionals or others who guide, work with, or treat traumatized children are offered in this handbook. Drawn in part from interviews, the information here serves as a reference and guide and should help counselors, social workers, psychologists, teachers, foster parents, and other child advocates to understand how traumatic experiences affect children and what caregivers can do to foster the healing process. It also explains relevant treatment issues by describing the stages to recovery from trauma, panic attack intervention, and metaphorical storytelling. Some of the major resilience traits exhibited by children are likewise discussed. Some of the specific topics addressed include trauma and its impact on society, recognizing posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms, the recovery process, healing interventions, and other helping strategies. The fact that many adults have also been traumatized as children is recognized and a chapter is devoted to this condition which presents the strengths and liabilities evident in caregivers who were traumatized as children. This chapter also offers suggestions for the self-care of child advocates. Citations and references for each chapter are included. (RJM)

"Hope and Healing is a guide for early childhood professionals who care for children in a variety of early care and education settings. The authors define trauma and help readers recognize its effects on young children. They also offer tips, resources, and proven intervention strategies for working with traumatized children and their families and for managing stress."--BOOK JACKET.

Trauma and Play Therapy synthesizes new developments in the study of children’s trauma recovery to assist clinicians in combining play therapy with other powerful ways of addressing the needs of hurt children. The TraumaPlayTM model, formerly known as Flexibly Sequential Play Therapy, equips practitioners to manage and adapt aspects of the play therapy place and process in order to help children tell their stories while draining the emotional toxicity from traumatic experiences. Chapters explore the neurobiological and developmental foundations of play therapy as well as strategies for navigating children’s trauma in relation to specific aspects of play therapy such as sensory integration, metaphor, and humor. Enriched by a tapestry of illustrative case examples and tools for therapists, this is a vital new book for clinicians working at the intersection of play and children’s trauma.

"This book is designed to be used in tandem with Real Life Heroes: A Life Storybook for Children (Haworth), a workbook that helps children develop the self-esteem they need to overcome the worries and fears of their past through a creative arts approach that fosters affect management skills, positive values, a sense of pride, and a safe, nurturing relationship with a caring, committed adult."--Jacket