Rich with case material and artwork samples, this volume demonstrates a range of creative approaches for facilitating children's emotional reparation and recovery from trauma. Contributors include experienced practitioners of play, art, music, movement and drama therapies, bibliotherapy, and integrative therapies, who describe step-by-step strategies for working with individual children, families, and groups. The case-based format makes the book especially practical and user-friendly. Specific types of stressful experiences addressed include parental loss, child abuse, accidents, family violence, bullying, and mass trauma. Broader approaches to promoting resilience and preventing posttraumatic problems in children at risk are also presented.

Table of Contents

Part I: Creative Interventions and Children: Basics of Practice. Malchiodi, Creative Interventions and Childhood Trauma. Malchiodi, Effective Practice with Traumatized Children: Ethics, Evidence, and Cultural Sensitivity. Part II: Creative Interventions with Individuals. Klorer, Expressive Therapy for Severe Maltreatment and Attachment Disorders: A Neuroscience Framework. Hilliard, Music and Grief Work with Children and Adolescents. Loumeau-May, Grieving in the Public Eye: Art Therapy with Children Who Lost Parents in the World Trade Center Attacks. Sanders, Medical Art and Play Therapy with Accident Survivors. D. S. Safran, E. R. Safran, Creative Approaches to Minimize the Traumatic Impact of Bullying Behavior. Malchiodi, Ginns-Gruenberg, Trauma, Loss, and Bibliotherapy: The Healing Process of Stories. Part III: Creative Interventions with Families and Groups. Echterling, Stewart, Creative Crisis Intervention Techniques with Children and Families. Cattanach, Working Creatively with Children and Their Families After Trauma: The Storied Life. Haen, Vanquishing Monsters: Drama Therapy for Treating Childhood Trauma in the Group Setting. Malchiodi, A Group Art and Play Therapy Program for Children from Violent Homes. Steele, Malchiodi, Interventions for Parents of Traumatized Children. Part IV: Creative Intervention as Prevention. Malchiodi, Steele, Kuban, Resilience and Posttraumatic Growth in Traumatized Children. Klein, Ready..., Set..., R.E.L.A.X.!: Relaxation Strategies with Children and Adolescents.

Author Biography

Cathy A. Malchiodi, ATR-BC, LPCC, CPAT, REAT, is a licensed clinical mental health counselor, art therapist, and expressive arts therapist, and is also a faculty member at the National Institute for Trauma and Loss in Children and at Lesley University. She has more than 25 years of clinical experience in working with people of all ages and has worked as an art therapist with survivors of traumatic experiences, including domestic violence, physical and sexual abuse, disaster, and serious or life-threatening illnesses. Ms. Malchiodi is a frequent presenter on art and health care throughout the United States, Canada, Asia, and Europe, and has given more than 250 invited presentations. She is the only person to have received all three of the American Art Therapy Association's highest honors: Distinguished Service Award (1991), Clinician Award (2000), and Honorary Life Member Award (2002). The author or editor of numerous books, including The Art Therapy Sourcebook, Understanding Children's Drawings, and the Handbook of Art Therapy, she has also published over 70 peer-reviewed papers on the use of art therapy and arts medicine with trauma survivors, survivors of child physical and sexual abuse, people with psychiatric disorders, and those with physical illness.