Creative Ways to Help Children Manage BIG Feelings: A Therapist’s Guide to Working with Preschool and Primary Children

202 Pages·2017·3.39 MB·english

by  Fiona Zandt

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“A wonderful book for both new and experienced practitioners across o

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resource for anyone working therapeutically with children.” p

—Fran Craig, Mental Health Clinician, Child and Adolescent C
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Mental Health Service, Melbourne, Australia
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Help children to stay on top of “big” feelings like anger, sadness and anxiety with this ingeniously
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easy-to-use therapy toolkit. Focusing on making therapy for children both purposeful and playful,
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the book provides 47 activities to transform your sessions using everyday materials and a variety
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of tried-and-tested therapy models.
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The authors deliver sage advice on how to work with children, adapting your approach for g
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different age groups and judging how and when to involve parents and teachers. The handy

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reference table allows you to quickly fish out the perfect activity for the moment, according to
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the emotion the child is experiencing or the therapeutic method needed. With its winning mix of

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Creative Ways to
the ideal companion for both new and experienced therapists working with children aged 4–12. e
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Dr Fiona Zandt and Dr Suzanne Barrett are clinical psychologists who each have over
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15 years’ experience working therapeutically with children and families. They are based in
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Melbourne, Australia.
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Cover design: Adam Renvoize

“The great strength of this book lies in the organization, practical format and respectful
presentation, which both newly-qualified and experienced clinicians can adapt to their therapeutic
practice with children.”
—Associate Professor Lesley Bretherton, Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, Australia
“An excellent guide…based on clinical experience and practical, engaging methods. It promotes a
thoughtful orientation to working with children and includes a broad range of creative activities.”
—Professor Vicki Anderson, Head of Psychology, Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, Australia
“This should be a very helpful handbook for the child mental health field.”
—Professor Margot Prior, Honorary Professor, Melbourne School of
Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, Australia
“This is an essential handbook for mental health professionals working collaboratively and
respectfully with children and their families. It outlines playful therapeutic approaches to help
children identify and communicate difficult feelings and to develop effective coping strategies.”
—Dr Deborah Hutchins, Clinical Psychologist, Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, Australia
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CREATIVE WAYS TO
HELP CHILDREN MANAGE
B I G F E E L I N G S
A THERAPIST’S GUIDE TO WORKING WITH
PRESCHOOL AND PRIMARY CHILDREN
DR FIONA ZANDT AND DR SUZANNE BARRETT
FOREWORD BY ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR LESLEY BRETHERTON
Jessica Kingsley Publishers
London and Philadelphia
First published in 2017
by Jessica Kingsley Publishers
73 Collier Street
London N1 9BE, UK
and
400 Market Street, Suite 400
Philadelphia, PA 19106, USA
www.jkp.com
Copyright © Dr Fiona Zandt and Dr Suzanne Barrett 2017
Foreword copyright © Lesley Bretherton 2017
Front cover image source: Shutterstock®.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material
form (including photocopying of any pages other than those marked with a , or
storing in any medium by electronic means or transmitting) without the written
permission of the copyright owner except in accordance with the provisions of
the law or under terms of a licence issued in the UK by the Copyright Licensing
Agency Ltd. www.cla.co.uk or in overseas territories by the relevant reproduction
rights organisation, for details see www.ifrro.org. Applications for the copyright
owner’s written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be
addressed to the publisher.
All pages marked may be photocopied and can be downloaded at
www.jkp.com/catalogue/book/9781785920745 for personal use with this
program, but may not be reproduced for any other purposes without the
permission of the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Title: Creative ways to help children manage BIG feelings : a therapist’s
guide to working with preschool and primary children / Dr Fiona Zandt and
Dr Suzanne Barrett.
Description: London ; Philadelphia : Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2017. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016046980 (print) | LCCN 2016048872 (ebook) | ISBN
9781785920745 (alk. paper) | ISBN 9781784504878 (ebook)
Subjects: | MESH: Psychotherapy--methods | Child
Classification: LCC RJ504 (print) | LCC RJ504 (ebook) | NLM WS 350.2 |
DDC
618.92/8914--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016046980
ISBN 978 1 78592 074 5
eISBN 978 1 78450 487 8
To James, Joseph, Christian and Edith—
my greatest loves and best teachers.
FZ
To Arch, Alyssa, Annabelle and Bradley—
for all the love, joy and wisdom you bring to my life.
SB

Contents
Foreword by Associate Professor Lesley Bretherton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Part I: Therapeutic Work with Children and Families 17
1. Therapeutic Frameworks and Why Working with Children Is Different . . . 19
2. The Importance of Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3. Purposeful and Playful Therapy . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
4. Working with Families, Preschools and Schools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
5. Developmental Considerations when Working with Children . . . . . . . . 49
6. Key Approaches and Helpful Ideas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
7. How to Use the Activities in This Book. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Part II: Creative Therapeutic Activities 89
Anxious/excited coin toss. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Big volcano . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Binoculars for looking inside . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Blow your worries away. . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Board games. . . . . .. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Body mapping. . . . . .. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Bowl it over. . . . . .. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Breaking news… . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Butterfly catching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Calm box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Colored glasses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Disappearing thoughts and feelings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Family feelings inventory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Family feelings jump . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Fear hierarchy . . . . . .. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Feeling block people . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Feeling bubbles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Feelings buzzer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Feelings in our family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Feelings juggle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Feelings that show. . . . . .. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Feelings thermometer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Helpful thought bracelet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
In my heart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Kick-back soccer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Lift the flap on anger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Mad Monday . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Magic cord . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Magic spell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Mistake jars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Monster hunt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Possibilities jump . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Pushing my buttons. . . . . .. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Put the fire out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Rocket chair. . . . . .. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Scary sounds game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Strain it out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Straw that broke the camel’s back . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Target practice. . . . . .. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Thoughts to stick with . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Toilet paper scaling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Treasure chest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Warning signs. . . . . .. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
What lives in your house? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Which animal? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Worry box. . . . . .. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Yawn game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Appendix: Our Favorite Children’s Books for Therapy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193