Healing Child and Family Trauma through Expressive and Play Therapies

Dr. Courtney is a respected colleague with substantive experience working with young children and families. In this book she highlights a broad range of topics that together provide the foundation for offering concrete, kind, and trauma-informed help to children and families. She presents a truly integrated approach that combines contemporary knowledge about neuroscience, the brain, the body-mind connection, and the person of the therapist.--Eliana Gil, PhD, RPT-S, ATR, Senior Clinical and Research Consultant, Gil Institute for Trauma Recovery and Education, LLC, Fairfax, VA Organized around the humanistic perspective, Healing Child and Family Trauma Through Expressive and Play Therapies begins with a discussion of the theoretical landscape to set the stage for reviewing clinical applications of expressive arts and play therapies to assess and heal child and family trauma. Each chapter engages readers by incorporating numerous activities and case examples. This book is a must-read for novice and experienced practitioners working with the traumatized child and their family. --Susan W. Gray, MBA, PhD, Ed.D., LCSW, University Distinguished Professor of Social Work Emerita- Barry University, author and recipient of the NASW Lifetime Achievement Award

Janet A. Courtney, PhD, is founder of FirstPlay Therapy, a Registered Play Therapy Supervisor, and a TEDx Speaker. She is immediate past chair of the Association for Play Therapy Ethics and Practice committee, and former president of the Florida Association for Play Therapy. Since 1997, she has been an Adjunct Professor at Barry University, Miami, Florida. She currently oversees the Play Therapy curriculum in the School of Social Work at Barry University. She is an author and internationally recognized speaker and has been invited to present on trauma informed topics of infant, child, and family expressive play therapies across the U.S. and globally. Dr. Courtney was also named the 2021 Viola Brody Award winner from the Florida Association for Play Therapy.