1st Edition

Helping Children Cope with Trauma Individual, family and community perspectives

Edited By Ruth Pat-Horenczyk, Danny Brom, Juliet M. Vogel Copyright 2014
    280 Pages 3 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    280 Pages 3 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    Helping Children Cope with Trauma bridges theory and practice in examining emerging approaches to enhancing resilience and treating traumatised children. Adopting a child-centred perspective, it highlights the importance of the synergy between individual, family, community and social interventions for recovery from post-traumatic stress.

    Consisting of chapters by an international range of contributors, the book is presented in three sections, reflecting the ecological circles of support that facilitate healthy development in the face of traumatic circumstances. Section 1, Individual, addresses the impact of exposure to trauma and loss on post-traumatic adaptation, focusing on biological aspects, attachment patterns, emotion regulation and aggressive behaviour in children. Section 2, Family, looks at the concept of family resilience, the impact of trauma on playfulness in toddlers and parents, innovative models for working with children traumatised by war, domestic violence and poverty and describes the challenges faced by refugee families in the light of intergenerational transmission of trauma. Section 3, Community, broadly explores the concept of community resilience and preparedness, the centrality of the school in the community during times of war and conflict, post-traumatic distress and resilience in diverse cultural contexts and the impact of trauma work on mental health professionals who live and work in shared traumatic realities. The book concludes with a theoretical discussion of the concept of Survival Mode as an organisng principle for understanding post-traumatic phenomena.

    Helping Children Cope with Trauma will provide mental health professionals, child welfare workers, educators, child development experts and researchers with a thorough understanding of the needs of children after trauma and how those needs may best be met.

    Introduction. Part One: Individual. Pratchett and Yehuda,: Developmental Trauma from a Biophysical Perspective. Greene, Grasso and Ford, Emotion Regulation in the Wake of Complex Childhood Trauma. Pat-Horenczyk, Yeh, Cohen and Schramm, The Impact of Exposure to Violence on Aggression in Children and Adolescents: What can be learned from the trauma and resilience perspective. Baum, Silverman and Ginat, Childhood Bereavement and Traumatic Loss. Part Two: Family. Vogel and Pfefferbaum, Family Resilience after Disasters and Terrorism. Cohen, "Playing with Fire": Promoting play and playfulness in toddlers and families exposed to recurrent rocket fire. Harel and Kaminer, The Haifa Dyadic Therapy: a mentalization-based treatment for war-traumatized children. Sternin and Weiss, Home Visiting: Benefits and challenges of working with traumatized young children in the home using the Child-Parent Psychotherapy Model. Van Ee, Mooren and Kleber, Broken Mirrors: Shattered relationships within refugee families. Part Three: Community. Laor, Wolmer, Spirman, Hamiel and Wiener, Child-oriented Perspective on Community Resilience. Slone and Shoshani, The Centrality of the School in the Community During War and Conflict. Tol, Haroz, Hock, Kane and Jordans, Ecological Perspectives on Trauma and Resilience in Children Affected by Armed Conflict: Bridging evidence and practice. Dawson and Bryant, Developing a Theoretical Model of Children’s Responses to Disaster and Conflict in the Context of Islam. Dekel and Nuttman-Schwartz, Being a Parent and a Helping Professional in the Ongoing Shared Traumatic Reality in Southern Israel. Concluding Comments. Brom, Thoughts about Survival Mode Theory of Post-traumatic Reactions. Index.

    Biography

    Ruth Pat-Horenczyk is a clinical psychologist and Director of Child and Adolescent Clinical Services at the Temmy and Albert Latner Israel Center for the Treatment of Psychotrauma at Herzog Hospital in Jerusalem. She is also Adjunct Associate Professor at the Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

    Danny Brom is a clinical psychologist, the Founding Director of the Israel Center for the Treatment of Psychotrauma at Herzog Hospital in Jerusalem, and an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the former director of the Dutch Institute for Psychotrauma (IVP), the Netherlands.

    Juliet M. Vogel is a clinical psychologist and has been associated with the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System in Manhasset, New York for more than 20 years. She was previously the Director of Training for the Division of Trauma Psychiatry, and is currently an associate professor at the Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine at Hofstra University.

    Helping Children Cope with Trauma reflects the breadth of knowledge, experience, and commitment of the editors and authors.  It is an important and interesting volume with the emphasis on theory, research, and interventions from many cross-cultural perspectives.  The emphasis on ways to build individual, family, and community resilience is particularly important in that for children coping with trauma, learning more about strengths that aid recovery is crucial.  Given the range of perspectives and approaches covered in this excellent volume and its international scope, I recommend that this book be required reading for all who work with traumatized children and families.’ - Joy D. Osofsky, Ph.D, LSU Health Sciences Center, USA.