Now in a fully updated second edition, this professional guidebook has been created to help adults provide emotional support for children who have experienced the loss of somebody they know, or something they loved.
Written in an accessible style and with a sensitive tone, Helping Children with Loss provides adults with a rich vocabulary for mental states and painful emotions, paving the way for meaningful and healing conversations with children who are struggling with difficult feelings. Practical activities provide opportunities for conversation and will empower the child to find creative and imaginative ways of expressing themselves when words fail.
Key features of this resource include:
- Targeted advice for children who defend against feeling their painful feelings by dissociating from grief
- Tools and strategies for helping children cope with loss, including engaging activities to help children explore their feelings in a non-threatening way
- Photocopiable and downloadable resources to help facilitate support
Written by a leading child psychotherapist with over thirty years' experience, this book will support children to develop emotional literacy and connect with unresolved feelings affecting their behaviour. It is an essential resource for anybody supporting children aged 4-12 who have experienced loss.
About the Author: Margot Sunderland is Director of Education and Training at The Centre for Child Mental Health London, Co-Director of Trauma Informed Schools UK, Honorary Visiting Fellow at London Metropolitan University, Senior Associate Member of the Royal College of Medicine, and Child Psychotherapist with over thirty years' experience of working with children, teenagers (many in residential care homes) and families. She is also a qualified secondary school teacher.
Margot is author of over twenty books in the field of child mental health, which collectively have been translated into eighteen languages and published in twenty-four countries. Her internationally acclaimed book, 'The Science of Parenting' (Dorling Kindersley) won a First Prize in the British Medical Association Medical Book awards and has been voted as one of the best brain books of our time by The Dana Foundation. Dr Sunderland has been studying the neuroscience of adult-child relationships for 17 years. Dr Sunderland is also founding Director of The Institute for Arts in Therapy and Education, a Higher Education College and Academic Partner of University of East London. The College runs Masters Degrees/Diplomas in Child Psychotherapy, Child Counselling, Parent-Child Therapy and Therapeutic Play.
Nicky Armstrong holds an MA from the Slade School of Fine Art and a BA Hons in Theatre Design from the University of Central England. She has illustrated over 34 books in the mental health field which have been translated into 5 languages/countries. She works full time as an illustrator and fine artist. She has achieved major commissions nationally and internationally in mural work and fine art.
