Identity is formed through the narration of experience, and children who experience difficult life events may need help in forming and expressing their own narratives. Play therapy can be a very appropriate way of facilitating this kind of expression. This book describes the work of nine play therapists through the narratives of children – and some adults – whose stories emerge during their play therapy sessions.
These stories are not direct accounts of real happenings but are imaginative, metaphorical, complex and multi-layered. The life events they relate to include fostering, long-term illness, and the traumatic death of a close adult. One chapter examines attachment in families and another describes the Biography Laboratory project exploring story creation through action research. This is a book in which professionals from many disciplines will find much to further their understanding of children’s experiences and understanding of the world.
Tabela de Conteúdo
Introduction. 1. When All the World was Slime, Sally Hanson, North Wales. 2. The Self is a Telling: A Child’s Tale of Alien Abduction, David le Vay, Surrey. 3. Jeffrey the Dog: A Search for Shared Meaning, Sue Allanson, NSPCC, Derbyshire. 4. All That Glitters is not Gold: Getting a Family, Ruth Watson, London. 5. In the Wake of the Monster: When Trauma Strikes, Alison Kelly, London. 6. The Wounded Hero, Maureen Scott-Nash, Hertfordshire. 7. Finding the Way Back Home: Children’s Stories of Family Attachment, Sheila Hudd., London. 8. The Narrow Road to the Deep North: Tracking a Life, Ann Cattanach, Inverness-shire. 9. The Biography Laboratory: Co-creating in Community, Christine Novy, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada. Index.