Using Stories to Build Bridges with Traumatized Children

This book provides a cogent model for understanding the applications of stories to therapy and counselling as well as articulate advice about developing therapeutic, solution-based, and personalized stories to enhance trauma recovery. It is a book that I will return to on a regular basis and a must-have volume for counsellors, social workers, psychologists, creative arts therapists and trauma specialists. -- Cathy Malchiodi, PhD, LPCC, LPAT, ATR-BC, REAT, Trauma-Informed Practices and Expressive Arts Therapy Institute and President, Art Therapy Without Borders Practitioners will easily identify themes in these stories, which will have resonance for many of the children and families they work with. This book may also inspire some to have a go at writing their own therapeutic stories, and the structure suggested and underlying principles are equally relevant to compiling life story books for children. -- Joy Rees, adoption adviser, social work consultant, trainer and author of Life Story Books for Adopted Children The stories in this book, created from both the realities of children's lives and a liberating imagination, show how storymaking and storytelling can help children understand themselves better and see themselves differently. It illustrates, as stories clearly can, the almost magical power of storytelling to transform and heal. Kim tells us her process of developing stories and then shows us the stories allowing us to see how powerful they are. When I first read them I thought of many children I've worked with and felt closer to them, that I understood them better and, in turn, become more curious about their experience. Kim shows us what we can do when we start thinking about the children we work with using imagination and creativity. -- From the Foreword by Dr. Steve Killick, Clinical Psychologist, Cardiff University, and Storyteller Kim Golding is truly both an excellent psychologist, teacher, and writer while at the same time being a wonderful story creator. This is a work to read deeply and to keep nearby as we use stories to help children, their families, and ourselves to make sense of our life long journeys. -- From the foreword by Dan Hughes, psychologist and founder of Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy, author of Attachment-Focused Family Therapy Workbook