A Safe Place to Grow

by Roseby, Vivienne; Johnston, Janet, Ph.D.; Gentner, Bettina; Moore, Erin

• ISBN13: 9780789027689
• ISBN10: 0789027682
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-09-30
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Discover the effective group treatment strategies that help your school-aged clients! A child immersed in a conflicted family life may be forced to cope with a multitude of trauma, including violence, abuse, and insecurity. In A Safe Place to Grow: A Group Treatment Manual for Children in Conflicted, Violent, and Separating Homes, highly respected experts give mental health professionals the tools to provide effective group treatment for children scarred by family environments of conflict and abuse. This easy-to-understand, step-by-step manual is a developmentally appropriate treatment curriculum for traumatized school-aged children. Age-appropriate sections separate therapy for big or little kids, focusing on efficacy while presenting a comfortable multi-ethnic, multi-cultural model. A Safe Place to Grow has easy-to-understand descriptions of techniques, with each session in the curriculum containing games and activities that are therapeutic yet flexible enough to be modified whenever the situation warrants. A chapter is included to helpfully troubleshoot problems encountered when in session with either age group of children. Useful illustrations accompany the text, along with a comprehensive bibliography listing additional therapeutic resources for different types of family problems. Appendixes are included for instruction on psycho-educational groups for parents that enhance their sensitivity to their children's needs, as well as providing an evaluation study of the group model itself. A Safe Place to Grow provides a sequence of activities within the group model aimed at each of these five goals: creating common ground and safety exploring the language and complexity of feeling defining and understanding the self defining and revising roles and relationships restoring a moral order A Safe Place to Grow is an essential resource for social workers, psychologists, family and child therapists, school counselors, and battered women and children's advocates.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction	1	(28)
PART I: LITTLE KIDS' (LK) MANUAL
Saying Hello and Making Me Feel Safe in Group	29	(5)
How I am Feeling: Same and Different	34	(5)
Feeling Words and Faces: Who I Am	39	(5)
Exploring Levels of Feeling	44	(7)
Managing My Good and Bad Feelings at One Time	51	(5)
Feeling and Being Me: Separate and Together	56	(4)
It's Okay to Be Different	60	(5)
Going Back and Forth: Managing Transitions and Change	65	(5)
Managing When Parents Fight	70	(4)
Safety Planning and Ways of Coping	74	(4)
Masking Feelings: My Inside and Outside Self	78	(7)
Remembering and Saying Good-Bye	85	(16)
LK Session Tips and Guidelines	90	(11)
PART II: BIG KIDS' (BK) MANUAL
Saying Hello and Making a Safe Place to Work Together	101	(9)
Exploring Levels of Feelings, Actions, and Points of View	110	(9)
Making a Safe Inside Place and Learning the Rules of Role-Play	119	(9)
Exploring a Safe Inside Place and Back to Reality	128	(6)
Defining Wishes for Yourself and Rules That Work for Your Family and Relationships	134	(8)
Exploring the Mirror: Who You Are and How You Show Your Feelings	142	(5)
Exploring Your Inside Self and Your Outside Self	147	(9)
Making a Family Sculpture: Who We Are and Who We Could Be	156	(10)
Becoming the Experts on Living with Change, Loss, and Conflict	166	(8)
Telling Your Story So Far, Thinking About Who You Want to Be in the Future, and Saying Good-Bye	174	(31)
PART III: APPENDIXES
Appendix A. Troubleshooting for Both LK and BK Groups	189	(8)
Appendix B. Psychoeducational Groups for Parents	197	(4)
Appendix C. An Evaluation Study of the Group Model	201	(4)
Notes	205	(2)
Bibliography	207	(2)
Index	209