Narrative and Dramatic Approaches to Children’s Life Story with Foster, Adoptive and Kinship Families outlines narrative and dramatic approaches to improve vulnerable family relationships. It provides a model which offers new ways for parents to practise communicating with their children and develop positive relationships. The book focuses on the Theatre of Attachment model - a highly innovative approach which draws from a strong theoretical base to demonstrate the importance of narrative and dramatic play for sharing the children’s life history in the family home with their adoptive, foster or kinship parents. An emphasis is on having fun ways to work through complex feelings and divided loyalties, so as to secure attachment. This practice model aims to raise children’s self-esteem and communication skills and to combat the profound effects of abuse, neglect on trauma on children’s development. This book will be of great interest for academics, post-graduate students, universities and Training bodies, service providers and practitioners involved in social work and creative therapies, child psychologists, child psychotherapists and public and private adoption and foster care agencies.

This accessible resource contains therapeutic stories and guidance for adults who are supporting young people aged 10–14 in foster, adoptive or kinship families. With a solution-focused approach, the stories are designed to address a range of social and emotional problems, covering topics such as bullying, eating disorders, trauma, parents’ health, homophobia and racism. Each story is accompanied by relevant context and theory, discussion points and creative activities that will stimulate the young person’s problem-solving skills and imagination, empowering them to explore solutions to situations in their own lives. Key features include: 35 therapeutic stories created to help young people make sense of their experiences, illustrating empathetic responses and solutions to social and emotional difficulties. Discussion points and related activities based on the author’s extensive practical experience and knowledge. Practice guidelines and case studies to illustrate how the story-making approach can be used by therapists, adoptive parents, social workers and teachers. Photocopiable and downloadable resources. This book will enable foster, adoptive and kinship parents, social workers, therapists, teachers and other professionals to support the young people with whom they are working to resolve their dilemmas and enhance their self-esteem.

The Routledge International Handbook of Therapeutic Stories and Storytelling is a unique book that explores stories from an educational, community, social, health, therapeutic and therapy perspectives, acknowledging a range of diverse social and cultural views in which stories are used and written by esteemed storytellers, artists, therapists and academics from around the globe. The book is divided into five main sections that examine different approaches and contexts for therapeutic stories and storytelling. The collected authors explore storytelling as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic, in education, social and community settings, and in health and therapeutic contexts. The final section offers an International Story Anthology written by co-editor Sharon Jacksties and a final story by Katja Gorečan. This book is of enormous importance to psychotherapists and related mental health professionals, as well as academics, storytellers, teachers, people working in special educational needs, and all those with an interest in storytelling and its applied value.

Exploring the influence of early family relationships on a child′s development, with essential insights for fostering holistic well-being in the early years.

Developing Secure Attachment Through Play offers a range of imaginative and engaging play-based activities, designed to help vulnerable young children forge safe attachments with their caregivers. The book focuses on key developmental stages that may have been missed due to challenging life circumstances, such as social-emotional development, object permanence and physical and sensory development. It also considers pertinent issues including trauma, separation, loss and transition. Chapters explore each topic from a theoretical perspective, before offering case studies that illustrate the theory in practice, and a range of activities to demonstrate the effectiveness of play in developing healthy attachments. Key features of this book include: • 80 activities that can be carried out at home or in educational settings, designed to facilitate attachment and enhance social-emotional development; • case vignettes exploring creative activities such as mirroring, construction play, physical play, baby doll play and messy play; • scripts and strategies to create a safe and respectful environment for vulnerable children; • photocopiable and downloadable resources, including early learning goals, a collection of therapeutic stories and a transition calendar By engaging children in these activities, parents, caregivers and practitioners can help the children in their care gain a sense of belonging and develop their self-esteem. This will be a valuable resource for early years practitioners, adoptive, foster and kinship parents, and therapists and social workers supporting young children.

This third edition of Current Approaches in Drama Therapy offers a revised and updated comprehensive compilation of the primary drama therapy methods and models that are being utilized and taught in the United States and Canada. Two new approaches have been added, Insight Improvisation by Joel Gluck, and the Miss Kendra Program by David Read Johnson, Nisha Sajnani, Christine Mayor, and Cat Davis, as well as an established but not previously recognized approach in the field, Autobiographical Therapeutic Performance, by Susana Pendzik. The book begins with an updated chapter on the development of the profession of drama therapy in North America, followed by a chapter on the current state of the field written by the editors and Jason Butler. Section II includes the 13 drama therapy approaches, and Section III includes the three related disciplines of Psychodrama and Sociodrama, Playback Theatre, and Theatre of the Oppressed that have been particularly influential to drama therapists. This highly informative and indispensable volume is structured for drama therapy training programs. It will continue to be useful as a basic text of drama therapy for both students and seasoned practitioners, including mental health professionals (such as counselors, clinical social workers, psychologists, creative arts therapists, occupational therapists), theater and drama teachers, school counselors, and organizational development consultants.

Life story work is an approach designed to enable traumatized children to explore, question and understand the past events of their lives. It aims to secure their future by strengthening attachment with their carers and providing the opportunity to develop a healthy sense of self and a feeling of wellbeing. This new edited volume documents innovative ways in which life story work has been developed. It draws on the work of nine life story centres based around the world and provides understanding and guidance for those working with children who have experienced trauma. The book illustrates current theory and practice and looks at how the approach is being used in a variety of settings including schools, intensive services, youth justice, and post-adoption support, highlighting its versatility. The importance of trauma-informed practice when working with vulnerable children is emphasised throughout, to help practitioners provide the best for the children in their care.

Fostered and adopted children can present major challenges resulting from unresolved attachment issues and early traumatic experiences. In this much-needed book, the contributors provide a variety of complementary perspectives on the needs of these children and their families, focusing on ways of integrating attachment theory and developmental psychology into effective practice. Examining multiple aspects of work with children who are unable to live with their birth families, the book includes contributions on the assessment, preparation and support needs of children and families, attachment and the neurobiological effects of trauma, effective management of contact with birth families and developmental challenges in school settings. The use of creative arts therapies, alongside developmental reparenting strategies as part of a long-term attachment therapy `package', are explored in some detail. A fictionalised family, used as a working example throughout Part 2, brings practical interventions to life: illustrating the Family Futures' inclusive approach, where adoptive and foster parents become pivotal members of the therapeutic team. In addition, contributions from real-life user families illustrate some of the challenges they face and demonstrate how the developmental attachment-based approach has worked for them. Bringing together a rich and innovative selection of ideas for adoption and fostering practice across the disciplines, this book will be a valuable resource for all involved in supporting substitute families.

This volume of the Research in Global Child Advocacy Series explores participatory methodologies and tools that involve children in research. Perspectives on the role of children have transitioned from viewing children as objects of research, to children as subjects of research, to acknowledgement of children as competent contributors and agents throughout the inquiry process. Researchers continue to explore approaches that honor the capacity of children, drawing on diverse methodologies to elevate children’s voices and actively engage them in the production of knowledge. Nonetheless, despite these developments, questions over the extent to which children can be free of adult filters and influence merits sustained scholarly attention. The book includes chapters that critically examine methodological approaches that empower children in the research process. Contributions include empirical or practitioner pieces that operate from an empowerment paradigm and demonstrate the agenic capacity of children to contribute their perspectives and voices to our understanding of childhood and children’s lives. The text also features conceptual pieces that challenge existing theoretical frameworks, critique research paradigms, and analyze dilemmas or tensions related to ethics, policy and power relations in the research process.

The Playing Cure focuses on the curative powers of play and the application of play therapy to a wide variety of psychological problems. The authors present a prescriptive approach built on years of research. With clear examples, they demonstrate how play therapy can be adapted to the treatment of many distinct clinical populations including Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), anxiety disorders, and adjustment reactions. This innovative approach challenges clinicians to implement a broad range of interventions that can be fine-tuned to the needs of each child.