How Children Tell: Using Developmentally Sensitivity Methods to Enhance the Traumatized Child s Narrative Paris Goodyear-Brown, LCSW, RPT-S www.parisandme.com paris@parisandme.com 615-397-9480
Trauma Narrative The story of what happened Events Feelings Thoughts Sensory impressions
Trauma Narrative as GE Desensitizes the child to trauma reminders Decreases avoidance Decreases hyperarousal Integrates trauma into the rest of the child s life (Cohen, Mannarino, & Deblinger, 2006)
Trauma Narrative One of the goals of creating the trauma narrative is to unpair thoughts, reminders, or discussions of the traumatic event from overwhelming negative emotions such as terror, horror, extreme helplessness, shame, or rage. -Cohen, Mannarino, & Deblinger, 2006
COMPONENTS OF FSPT Flexibly Sequential Play Therapy for Trauma Treatment
Type II trauma conceptualizations Complex trauma Complicated PTSD Disorders of Extreme Stress NOS Developmental trauma disorder
Key concepts for treating traumatized children Psychosomatic symptoms Amygdala alarm Decrease reactivity to physical injury The portals for therapeutic learning Follow the child s need Kinesthetic involvement The dyadic dance: towards and away from the trauma content Identifying and handling post-traumatic play
Implicit Memory Nonverbal memory Present at birth Generates emotions and perception Activated in behavioral responses, bodily sensations, and mental models One doesn t have the experience of remembering
Explicit Memory Semantic or factual memory Present from one and a half years of age Autobiographical memory develops after second birthday A sense of remembering is present when explicit memory is activated
The Right Hemisphere Dominant during the first three years Holistic, parallel, visual spatial Self-soothing Non-verbal aspects of language (tone, gestures) Encodes facial expressions
The Left Hemisphere Linear Logical Linguistic Sequencing of events using words
Coherent Narratives To have a coherent story, the drive of the left to tell a logical story must draw on the information from the right. If there is a blockage, as occurs in PTSD, then the narrative may be incoherent. -Siegel, p.15, (2003). An Interpersonal Neurobiology of Psychotherapy. In Healing Trauma: attachment, mind, body, and brain
Children cannot return to their developmental experience through confronting the stark reality of the trauma [this] can flood [their] emotions to the point of incapacitating [them] they must confront their pain experientially through play. Carol Crowell Norton, Ed.D. Byron E. Norton, Ed.D. Reaching Children Through Play Therapy
Continuum of Disclosure The glimpses that children give us: making sense of the snapshots
Somatic reactions game Increasing the child s awareness of what is going on in his/her body.
Expressive Arts in Trauma Narrative Work Drawing/ Visual Art Paint Sandtray Work Puppetry Therapeutic Storytelling Music
Relational Resources: When Parents Help Parent articulated cognitive interweave (PACI)-can be conceptualized as the caregiver becoming the ultimate soothing agent in that moment
Before, During, and After Integrating the trauma into the child s life narrative
Creative Child Therapy Resources Resources by Paris Goodyear-Brown (www.parisandme.com) 1) Tackling Touchy Subjects 2) Handbook of Child Sexual Abuse: Identification, Assessment and Treatment 3) Play Therapy with Traumatized Children: A Prescriptive Approach 4) The Worry Wars: An Anxiety Workbook for Kids and Their Helpful Adults 5) Digging for Buried Treasure: 52 Prop-Based Play Therapy Interventions for Treating the Problems of Childhood 6) Digging for Buried Treasure 2: 52 More Prop-Based Play Therapy Interventions for Treating the Problems of Childhood 7) 10 PEAS in a Pod (DVD) 8) Gabby the Gecko: A Therapeutic Storytelling Device for Helping Children Disclose Abuse
How Children Tell: Developmental Sensitivity in Trauma Narrative Work Paris Goodyear-Brown, LCSW, RPT-S www.parisandme.com paris@parisandme.com 615-397-9480