Working with Children to Heal Interpersonal Trauma The Power of Play

Featuring in-depth case presentations from master clinicians, this volume highlights the remarkable capacity of traumatized children to guide their own healing process. The book describes what posttraumatic play looks like and how it can foster resilience and coping. Demonstrated are applications of play, art, and other expressive therapies with children who have faced such overwhelming experiences as sexual abuse or chronic neglect. The contributors discuss ways to facilitate forms of expression that promote mastery and growth, as well as how to intervene when play becomes stuck in destructive patterns. They share effective strategies for engaging hard-to-reach children and building trusting therapeutic relationships.

Foreword, Lenore C. TerrI. The Extent of the Problem and Its Impact

1. Introduction, Eliana Gil


2. A Review of Current Research on the Incidence and Prevalence of Interpersonal Childhood Trauma, Jennifer A. Shaw


3. The Role of Healthy Relational Interactions in Buffering the Impact of Childhood Trauma, Christine R. Ludy-Dobson and Bruce D. Perry


4. Children’s Self-Initiated Gradual Exposure: The Wonders of Post-Traumatic Play and Behavioral Reenactments, Eliana GilII. Clinical Responses

5. Silent Grieving in a World without Words: A Child Witnesses His Brother’s Murder, Eliana Gil


6. The Owner of a Broken Heart: The Cumulative Trauma of Surgery and Sexual Abuse, Nicole Erin Jalazo


7. A Hero’s Journey: A Boy Who Lost His Parents and Found Himself, Vincent L. Pastore


8. A Tornado Disrupts the Wedding, to the Relief of the Unwilling Bride: A Girl’s Quest for Healing after Sexual Abuse, Myriam L. Goldin


9. Finding the Treasure Within: Spontaneous Storytelling and the Sandplay Journey of an Emotionally Despairing Girl, Rosalind L. Heiko


10. "Stitches Are Stronger Than Glue": A Child Directs the Healing of Her Shattered Heart, David A. Crenshaw


11. Manny's Story: A Soul Ascending, Eric J. Green


12. "I Am an Artist": A Sexually Traumatized Girl’s Self-Portraits in Paint and Clay, Barbara Sobol


13. The Gift of Time: Helping to Heal through Long-Term Treatment Involving Complex Trauma and Cultural Issues, Athena A. Drewes


14. "This Mommy Has No Milk!": A Neglected Child’s Adaptation to Loss and Hunger, Eliana Gil


15. Play and the Transformation of Feeling: Niki's Case, Eva-Maria Simms

Eliana Gil, PhD, is founding partner of the Gil Institute for Trauma Recovery and Education, a private group practice in Fairfax, Virginia. She is also Director of Starbright Training Institute for Child and Family Play Therapy. Dr. Gil has worked in the field of child abuse prevention and treatment since 1973. A licensed marriage, family, and child counselor; an approved marriage and family therapy supervisor; a registered art therapist; and a registered play therapy supervisor, she is a former President of the Association for Play Therapy, which honored her with its Lifetime Achievement Award. She is the author of The Healing Power of Play, Helping Abused and Traumatized Children, and Play in Family Therapy, Second Edition, among many other publications. Originally from Guayaquil, Ecuador, Dr. Gil is bilingual and bicultural.