A uniquely creative compilation of activities to help bereaved children express feelings of grief, diffuse traumatic reminders, address self-blame, commemorate the deceased, and learn coping strategies.
When children enter therapy because they have experienced the death of a family member or close friend, they are at a very vulnerable time in their lives. They are often anxious about the therapeutic process and reluctant to talk directly about the death. The purpose of this book is to provide mental health professionals who work with bereaved children with creative interventions to engage, assess, and treat them with activities that are creative and play-based can engage children and help them to express their thoughts and feelings.
Includes special activities for children dealing with the suicide or murder of a loved one. It covers a theoretical overview for practitioners, tips for caregivers and schools, and a ten-week curriculum for use in therapy or support groups.
An invaluable resource for grief counsellors, group facilitators, and school personnel.
Includes reproducible worksheets, sample forms, handouts and a questionnaire.
Also downloadable link for Free Resource:
Favorite Therapeutic Activities for Children, Youth and Families: - Practitioners Share Their Most effective Interventions. This is a creative collection of assessment and treatment techniques for individual, group, and family therapy.
"This volume provides a wonderful treasure-chest of appealing and practical aids to assist mental health practitioners in counseling bereaved school-age children. Numerous exercises and games are included that will encourage children to express their complicated feelings about the death of a loved one. Handouts for parents and teachers as well as guidelines for practitioners serve as important resources to assist adults in their efforts to help bereaved children."
- Nancy Boyd Webb, DSW, BCD, RPT-S
Distinguished Professor of Social Work, Fordham University
Author of Helping Bereaved Children, and Play Therapy with Children in Crisis
"I LOVE this book. It is so good I wish I had written it myself! It is a real contribution that will help so many!"
- Rabbi Earl A Grollman, Author of Talking About Death: A Dialogue Between Parent and Child, and Bereaved Children and teens
"This is an excellent resource of activities that will help grieving and traumatized children first find relief at the implicit sensory level and thereafter move to cognitively reframe their experience in ways they can better manage. Activities are indeed creative and unique, touch on all themes, require minimal materials and are easy to use in any setting, formal or informal. The National Institute for Trauma and Loss in Children (TLC) is recommending this resource to thousands of its Certified Trauma and Loss Specialists."
- William Steele, MSW, PsyD., Director, The National Institute for Trauma & Loss in Children
"Creative Interventions for Bereaved Children is a wonderful resource for educators, mental health professionals, parents, and all caring adults that work with and support grieving children. This book provides practical and age-appropriate activities to work with grieving children that allow them to release sensitive feelings and issues. Many interventions enhance discussion, interaction, and follow-up procedures to guide and encourage safe expression for young people. I highly recommend Liana Lowenstein’s excellent workbook to all those who care for and about the grieving child."
- Linda Goldman, MS, LCPC, FT (Fellow in Thanatology)
Adjunct Professor/ John Hopkins Graduate School and University of Maryland School of Social Work
Author of 3 book on grief in children: Children Also Grieve, Life and Loss, Breaking the Silence