A Professional's Guide to Working with Vulnerable and Traumatised Children


Book Description

This book presents “The Circle of Safety and Reconnection”, a compassionate reflection model for working with vulnerable and traumatised children and young people in a nurturing way, providing hope for post-traumatic healing and growth. The circle is a holistic and comprehensive framework for professionals working to create safety for children against violence and abuse. It takes into consideration a child’s individual, intergenerational, and collective trauma also assessing their risk and protection factors and using different tools to regulate the nervous system and promote healing. A step-by-step guide, populated with practice examples and exercises to walk the reader through using and adapting the model in practice, the book discusses the nature, signs, and ways of trauma, the reasons for it, and the different ways of healing these wounds outside the therapeutic context. Additionally, as this field is high risk for secondary traumatisation, stress, burnout, and compassion fatigue, the author has dedicated a chapter focusing solely on the building of resilience in professionals. This text is written for all professionals working in the field, including therapists and psychologists, social workers, educators, foster parents, nurses, day-care workers, and students.




The Mentalization Guidebook


Book Description

This book provides inspiration for using mentalization when working with vulnerable children, adolescents, and their families. It includes the basic models of mentalization and provides ways to support the neglected and traumatised to find a better understanding of themselves and their struggles.




A Session by Session Guide to Life Story Work


Book Description

Life story work is a term often used to describe an approach that helps looked after and adopted children to talk and learn about their life experiences with the help of a trusted adult. This book is an essential step-by-step guide for carers and professionals seeking to carry out life story work with a traumatised or vulnerable child in their care. Underpinned by positive psychology and drawing on up-to-date research and real-life practice, the book offers a sound theoretical understanding of life story work as well as a practical and easy-to-use programme of sessions. Each session covers the equipment and information needed, a consideration of who is best placed to carry out the work, and answers to commonly raised questions. Also discussed are age-appropriate approaches and ideas for extending each session into other activities and methods to make it more feasible for life story work to be a shared activity between two or three adults who know the child well. This book gives professionals and carers the confidence to carry out life story work in a way that is sensitive to the child’s needs and positive for their self-perception and relationships.




Trauma Informed Support and Supervision for Child Protection Professionals


Book Description

This book presents a narrative approach to creating a supportive environment for health and human service practitioners who work with vulnerable children and their families—one of the most difficult and complex areas of practice. People working in these environments are routinely exposed to violence and trauma and commonly experience symptoms of traumatic stress as a result. Traditionally, human service and health care service organisations have struggled to support practitioners who experience primary and secondary trauma in either a preventative context or post exposure. Using contemporary trauma theory, this book provides a trauma-informed support and supervision framework for supervisors and managers of practitioners that recognises the uniqueness of the practice field, the diversity of practitioners who undertake the work and the diversity of contexts in which they work. It will be required reading for all human service and health professionals, including social workers, psychologists and nurses as well as teachers, counsellors and youth workers.




From Trauma to Healing


Book Description

From Trauma to Healing: A Social Worker’s Guide for Working With Survivors is the next significant publication on trauma in the field of social work. Since September 11 and Hurricane Katrina, social workers have come together increasingly to consider how traumatic events impact practice. From Trauma to Healing is designed to provide direction in this process, supporting both the field’s movement towards evidence-based practice and social workers’ growing need to be equipped to work with trauma. It does so in the practical-guide format already proven to be compelling to social work students, educators, and practitioners, providing case examples, and addressing social workers’ unique ecological approach.




Creating Trauma-Informed Schools


Book Description

Children in all educational levels are vulnerable to abuse, neglect, bullying, violence in their homes and neighborhoods, and other traumatic life events; research shows that upwards of 70% of children in schools report experiencing at least one traumatic event before age 16. Though school social workers are on the front lines of service delivery through their work with children who face social and emotional struggles in the pursuit of education, there are scant resources to assist them in the creation of trauma-informed schools. This book presents an overview of the impact of trauma on children and adolescents, as well as interventions for direct practice and collaboration with teachers, families, and communities. Social work practitioners and students will learn distinct examples of how to implement the ten principles of trauma-informed services in their schools; provide students with trauma-informed care that is grounded in the principles of safety, connection, and emotional regulation; and develop beneficial skills for self-care in their work.




Life Story Therapy with Traumatized Children


Book Description

A comprehensive overview for professionals working with traumatized children, which outlines the theory and practice of life story therapy, a method which helps children and cares to question and resolve issues and events within a child's life.




An Adult's Guide to Childhood Trauma


Book Description

This book aims to assist parents, caregivers, teachers, health-care professionals and criminal justice system personnel to understand better the reactions of the child, as well as their own reactions, following a traumatic or stressful event.




Strong Foundations


Book Description

Strong Foundations addresses policy requirements from the Early Years Learning Framework, the National Quality Standard and Quality Improvement Plans, highlighting links between research and practice, and making connections to the five EYLF Learning Outcomes. The book showcases evidence from Australian and international research.




A Practical Guide to Helping Children and Young People Who Experience Trauma


Book Description

This concise and practical resource is for a range of carers and practitioners working with children who experienced trauma. A Practical Guide to Helping Children and Young People Who Experience Trauma will highlight their characteristics in contrast with those for children living in stability, and will describe specific techniques and strategies to help them in different environments and situations. The aim of this book is to equip practitioners with a range of approaches for these groups of vulnerable children, which are appropriate to sensitively meet their needs and make a difference to their emotional well-being. This practical resource looks at the impact of trauma and features chapters on mental health, adoption, homelessness and child refugees. Key Features are: case studies, work-sheets, evidence-based interventions.




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