Trauma in the Lives of Children: Crisis and Stress Management Techniques for Counselors and Other Professionals

The aim of this volume is to provide clinicians with techniques suitable for helping children to recover from overwhelming stress. The book begins with an introduction to the pathologic elements of crises that produce psychiatric symptoms. Useful tables summarize the key signs and developmental features of post-traumatic stress disorder, a term used to describe the agony associated with rape victims and disaster survivors. The text then provides mental health professionals with the methods instrumental in formulating treatment plans. The author describes how children function in their families, schools and communities, and shows the subtle and dramatic effects that crises produce on these systems. Specific instructions are outlined in order to aid therapists in their clinical encounters with traumatized children.