Creative Therapies with Traumatised Children

As a probation officer and social worker, Anne Bannister has successfully used creative therapies with abused children for 25 years. Combining her practical experience and recent doctoral research she reflects on how and why these therapies actually work in the healing process. She shows how in 'the space between' children and their therapists, the child and adult can each use their creative skills to aid developmental processes, reverse negative brain patterns and affect positive behavioural changes to heal the damage caused by severe abuse in childhood. The author presents a practical model called the Regenerative Approach to use when assessing and working therapeutically with traumatised children. Her research has implications for those working in the field of children's development and learning, and provides an important new approach for social workers, creative therapists and all those who work with traumatised children.