Healing Child and Family Trauma through Expressive and Play Therapies

There are many ways to help children and families heal from trauma. Leaning on our ancestral wisdom of healing through play, art, nature, storytelling, body, touch, imagination and mindfulness practice, Janet A. Courtney helps the clinician bring a variety of practices into the therapy room. This book identifies seven stages of therapy that provide a framework for working with client’s emotional, cognitive, somatic and sensory experiences to heal from trauma. Through composite case illustrations, practitioners will learn how to safely mitigate a range of trauma content, including complicated grief, natural disaster, children in foster care, aggression, toxic divorce, traumatised infants diagnosed with neonatal abstinence syndrome, and young mothers recovering from opioid addiction. Practice exercises interspersed throughout guide practitioners to personally engage in the creative expressive and play therapy techniques presented in each chapter, augmenting professional self- awareness and skill- building competencies.