Using Stories to Build Bridges with Traumatized Children

Kim S. Golding CBE, BSc, MSc, D. Clin. Psy. AFBPsS is a clinical psychologist who works in Worcestershire, England where she was influential in the founding of the Integrated Service for Looked After Children - a multi-agency, holistic service providing support for foster, adoptive and residential parents, schools and the range of professionals supporting children growing up in care or in adoptive families. Kim was trained and mentored by Dan Hughes in the use of Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP). She is on the board of the Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy Institute supporting the use of DDP in Europe, USA and Canada. She accredits and trains professionals in the approach in the UK and has been invited to speak about this work internationally.

The stories in this book, created from both the realities of children's lives and a liberating imagination, show how storymaking and storytelling can help children understand themselves better and see themselves differently. It illustrates, as stories clearly can, the almost magical power of storytelling to transform and heal. Kim tells us her process of developing stories and then shows us the stories allowing us to see how powerful they are. When I first read them I thought of many children I've worked with and felt closer to them, that I understood them better and, in turn, become more curious about their experience. Kim shows us what we can do when we start thinking about the children we work with using imagination and creativity.

• Foreword. Steve Killick, Clinical Psychologist and Storyteller. Introduction. 1. The Power of Stories for Facilitating Healing for Children and their Families. 2. 'Once upon a time...' Creating Your Own Stories. Section One: Looking Back and Moving On, Life in Stories. 3. Story One: The Caterpillar Who Did not Want to Become a Butterfly. 4. Story Two: Kirsty, the Cuckoo in the Nest. 5. Story Three: The Puppy Who needed healing. Section Two: Coping in Fear and Without Trust. 6. Story Four: Conner the Superhero. 7. Story Five: Millie and Her Mother. 8. Story Six: In the Eye of the Storm. Section Three: I Will Do It By Myself. 9. Story Seven: Born to Care. 10. Story Eight: The Boy with all the Knowledge of the World in His Head. 11. Story Nine: The Mermaid's Song. Section Four: Keep Noticing Me. 12. Story Ten: Melinda and the Golden Balloon. 13. Story Eleven: The Clockmakers and the Cuckoo Clock. 14. Story Twelve: The Space Boy. Section Five: Learning About Relationships. 15. Story Thirteen: Survival of the Fittest. 16. Story Fourteen: A Mummy Finds out how to Look After her Baby. 17. Story Fifteen: Sally Sunshine and the Big Bag of Worries. Section Six: Stories for Parents. 18. Story Sixteen: A Daughter's Tale. 19. Story Seventeen: William and Edward. 20. Story Eighteen: Longing and Belonging. Section Seven: Stories for the Practitioners. 21. Story Nineteen: The Finest Forest in all the Land. 22. Story Twenty: Never You Mind. 23. Story Twenty One: Bridge over Troubled Water. Appendix 1. Planning a Solution Story. Appendix 2. Planning a Therapeutic Story. Appendix 3. Planning a Trauma Story. Appendix 4. Planning a Narrative to Explore Life Story. Appendix 5. Planning an Insight Story. References.