Speaking about the Unspeakable: Non-Verbal Methods and Experiences in Therapy with Children

Speaking about the Unspeakable: Non-Verbal Methods and Experiences in Therapy with Children

★★★★★

Edited by Dennis McCarthy

Jessica Kingsley Publishing

ISBN 9781843108795

When I began working with traumatised children I was lucky enough to experience 10 half-day sessions of dance therapy and 10 half day sessions of art therapy.

All this was a long time ago but they remain clear in my memory partially because the therapy didn’t really include talking, a rather novel experience for me who trained as a health visitor and family therapist first.

It is pleasing to find in this book differing ways of helping children’s imagination deal with unspeakable experiences.

There are chapters on play therapy and “healing through nature”, as well as dance, movement and sand play.

Social workers often find themselves with angry, hurt children unable to express what they really feel. In this book there are contributions which use accessible and inspiring case studies for anyone working with and alongside children.

This book is a useful tool for those working in children’s residential settings as well as to therapists and psychologists. It can be dipped into or read as a whole.

Children themselves will often tell you what was therapeutic for them and quite often it wasn’t the talking.

Lynne Fordyce, Child and Family Resource Unit, Leeds PCT