Creative Therapies with Traumatised Children

As a probation officer and social worker, Anne Bannister has successfully used creative therapies with abused children for 25 years. Combining her practical.
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Be the first to review this product. Email to a Friend. As a probation officer and social worker, Anne Bannister has successfully used creative therapies with abused children for 25 years. Combining her practical experience and recent doctoral research she reflects on how and why these therapies actually work in the healing process. She shows how in 'the space between' children and their therapists, the child and adult can each use their creative skills to aid developmental processes, reverse negative brain patterns and affect positive behavioural changes to heal the damage caused by severe abuse in childhood.

It takes more than coloring for reparation to happen.

The author presents a practical model called the Regenerative Approach to use when assessing and working therapeutically with traumatised children. Her research has implications for those working in the field of children's development and learning, and provides an important new approach for social workers, creative therapists and all those who work with traumatised children.

Creative Therapies with Traumatised Children. Perry presents a neurodevelopmental perspective, the essential role of sensory-based experiences in early childhood , and how they enhance secure attachment, affiliation with others, empathy and self-regulation. He observes that our history as a human species has always included wellness practices such as holding each other, engaging in dance, song, image creation, and storytelling, and sharing celebrations and family rituals.

Creative Therapies with Traumatized Children

These actions were used in early healing practices and, according to Perry, are now known to be effective in altering neural systems involved in stress responses and developing secure attachment. Similarly, the arts therapies are normalizing experiences for children and trauma -informed practices in that they involve experiences that children in all cultures recognize Malchiodi, Nonverbal communication is our most basic form of communication and it is how caregiver and infant initially connect in those first years of life Schore, While most creative arts therapies involve talk, they are also defined as non-verbal approaches because self-expression through an activity becomes a major source of communication.

For children in particular, non-verbal means of communication are an important part of any therapy because children do not always have the words to accurately convey feelings and experiences. Because thoughts and feelings are not strictly verbal and are not limited to storage as verbal language in the brain, expressive modalities are particularly useful in helping individuals communicate aspects of memories and stories that may not be readily available through conversation.

Memories in particular have been reported to emerge through touch, imagery, or carefully guided body movements. For some individuals, conveying a memory or story through one or more expressive modality is more easily tolerated than verbalization. For example, children who have been severely traumatized may repeat experiences through play or art activity when the trauma memories are particularly complex or overwhelming Gil, ; Malchiodi, Additionally, non-verbal expression through a painting, play activity, imaginative roleplay, or movement may be a corrective experience, in and of itself, for some individuals.

In the field of attachment, it is widely accepted that what happens early in life in terms of relationships impacts brain development and is essential to secure attachment. Neuroplasticity also called brain plasticity is the ability of the brain to renew and, in some cases, to even rewire itself to compensate for deficits or injuries.

Creative Therapies with Traumatised Children: Anne Bannister - Book | Rahva Raamat

Brain plasticity is more easily accessible early in life, underscoring the importance of appropriate intervention with young children in order to not only enhance attachment, but also to support the development of appropriate affect regulation, interpersonal skills, and cognition. The right hemisphere of the brain is particularly active during early interactions between very young children and caregivers and that stores the internal working model for attachment relationships and affect regulation Schore, Interactions between baby and caretaker are right-brain mediated because during infancy the right cortex is developing more quickly than the left.

Siegel also observes that just as the left hemisphere requires exposure to language to grow, the right hemisphere requires emotional stimulation to develop properly.

Strategies for teachers: supporting traumatized children

Art expression, like play, adds to these positive relational experiences on multiple levels involving sensory, affective and cognitive channels of communication. This a very brief explanation of some of the reparative dynamics art therapy provides to children. But as the fields of art therapy and play therapy continue to expand knowledge about their effectiveness, the more we extend the possibilities for best practices with all children in need of help and healing.


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  6. Visit the Trauma-Informed Practices and Expressive Arts Therapy Institute for more information about expressive arts therapy with children, adults and families and educational offerings on trauma-informed expressive arts therapy. Click here for the latest Expressive Arts Therapy E-Newsletter January with links to resources, courses and article downloads on arts therapies, trauma-informed practice and more. For professional applications of art therapy, see Handbook of Art Therapy 2nd edition, Guilford Publications.

    Cathy Malchiodi is an art therapist, visual artist, independent scholar, and author of 13 books on arts therapies, including The Art Therapy Sourcebook. It's , so why am I still ruled by the dinner bell? The profession still struggles with public perception—and ethical boundaries. Back Find a Therapist. What Causes Stress Eating? Parenting Adolescents and the Choice-Consequence Connection.