1st Edition
The Storm For Children Growing Through Parents' Separation
This beautifully illustrated and sensitive storybook is designed to be used therapeutically by professionals and caregivers supporting children whose parents are going through a separation. With engaging and colourful illustrations that can be used to prompt conversation, it tells the story of a brother and sister, who are helped to come to terms with the new, changing shape of their family.
This book is also available to buy as part of the Therapeutic Fairy Tales pack. Therapeutic Fairy Tales is a series of short modern tales dedicated to exploring challenging situations that might be faced by young children. Each short story is designed to be used by professionals and parents as they use stories therapeutically to support children’s mental and emotional health.
Other books in the series include:
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Storybook Manual: Introduction To Working With Storybooks Therapeutically And Creatively
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The Night Crossing: A Lullaby For Children On Life’s Last Journey
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The Island: For Children With A Parent Living With Depression
Designed to be used with children aged 7+, each story has an accompanying online resource, offering therapeutic prompts and creative exercises to support the practitioner. These can also be adapted for wider use with siblings and other family members.
The Storm – part of the Therapeutic Fairy Tales series – is born out of a creative collaboration between Pia Jones and Sarah Pimenta.
Biography
Pia Jones is an author, workshop facilitator and UKCP integrative arts psychotherapist, who trained at The Institute for Arts in Therapy & Education. Pia has worked with children and adults in a variety of school, health and community settings. Core to her practice, is using arts and story as support during times of loss, transition and change, giving a TEDx talk on the subject. She was Story Director on artgym’s award-winning film documentary, ‘The Moving Theatre,’ where puppetry brought to life real stories of people’s migrations. Pia also designed the ‘Sometimes I Feel’ story cards, a Speechmark therapeutic resource to support children with their feelings. You can view her work at www.silverowlartstherapy.org.uk.
Sarah Pimenta is an experienced artist, workshop facilitator and lecturer in creativity. Her specialist art form is print-making, and her creative practice has brought texture, colour and emotion into a variety of environments, both in the UK and abroad. Sarah has over twenty years’ experience of designing and delivering creative, high-quality art workshops in over 250 schools, diverse communities and public venues, including the British Library, V&A, NESTA, Oval House and many charities. Her work is often described as art with therapeutic intent, and she is skilled in working with adults and children who have access issues and complex needs. Sarah is known as Social Fabric www.social-fabric.co.uk.
Both Pia and Sarah hope these Therapeutic Fairy Tales open up conversations that enable children and families’ own stories and feelings to be seen and heard.
A beautifully illustrated tale of how children may experience a stormy divorce. The Storm offers delicate and empathic guidance about learning to manage the difficult feelings within the ensuing turmoil.
Hephzibah Kaplan, Art Therapist, Director of London Art Therapy Centre
The Storm is a powerful story about parental separation and could be used with both children and parents together, to help parents understand the impact of the conflict in their relationships on their children, allowing for open conversations. The Storm could encourage sharing of worries and fears and give children a sense of safety in talking about their experiences with professionals who are supporting children through a scary and uncertain period in their lives.
Sarah-Jane Farr, Family Support Keyworker, Early Help WSCC
A beautifully written and illustrated book that can help young children explore and acknowledge difficult emotions such as guilt, sadness and anger that may be experienced through parental separation. It helps dispel the myth that children are to blame whilst reassuring children that they are still loved by each parent even though their parents no longer love each other.
Janey Treharne, Jigsaw (South East)
The power of these stories lies in their deeper natural and archetypal metaphor, something like the deeper Mother Earth continuity below any surface. Before even reading any of these Therapeutic Fairy Tales, you feel their tenderness through the stunningly beautiful illustrations.
Molly Wolfe, Art Psychotherapist, Sandplay Specialist
