Narrative Therapy with Children
An interesting challenge for parents, child and family therapists, and teachers is finding ways to engage children playfully while facing difficult problems together. Children, in concert with their families, can be tremendously creative and resourceful in resolving problems.
How do we interact respectfully with children to draw forth their imagination, motivation, special knowledge and abilities? Can we collaborate to make changing behavior fun as well as focused and effective?
Drawing primarily from play, narrative, and expressive arts approaches in the context of family therapy, this site provides a forum to learn about and discuss ideas and practices that appeal to children and that invite mutual creativity in the resolution of family problems.
Our Book: Playful Approaches to Serious Problems
The “grown-up talk” of therapy is likely to turn off children – especially if it focuses on their problematic behavior. The highly effective techniques of narrative therapy include children by respecting their unique language, stories, and views of the world. This book describes a basic theory of collaborative narrative play, as well as verbal and nonverbal techniques that clear the way for stories of hope, possibility, and change.
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES:
- Read Narrative Therapy Papers about children and their families!
- Browse our Bookshelf.
- Find out about upcoming Narrative workshops.
- View our partners Narrative Therapy Training Links.
- Learn about the Peace Family Project a “community of concern” for addressing family conflict.
- View the Index of the Archives of Resistance: anti-anorexia and anti-bulimia.
- Join our Facebook Page.
- Sign up for our Mailing List to receive updates about upcoming workshops, publications, events, and narrative therapy news.