Connecting with kids through stories : using narratives to facilitate attachment in adopted children

Children whose early development has been damaged by abuse or neglect are notoriously difficult to reach. Through many years' therapeutic work with adopted children and their families, Denise B. Lacher and Todd Nichols have developed an exciting and innovative technique which uses stories as the main mode for helping parents to communicate and connect with their troubled children. Connecting with Kids through Stories is an accessible guide to Family Attachment Narrative Therapy for the parents of adopted or fostered children, and for the professionals who work with them. Providing a thorough theoretical grounding, and detailed information on therapeutic techniques and how to assess progress, the book shows parents how to create their own therapeutic stories to promote increased attachment and improved behaviour in their child. The authors describe how different kinds of narratives can help with specific difficulties and illustrate their techniques with the story of a fictional family who develop their own narratives to help their adopted child heal. Children whose early development has been damaged by abuse or neglect are notoriously difficult to reach. Through many years'therapeutic work with adopted children and their families, the Family Attachment Center of Minnesota has developed an exciting and innovative technique which uses stories as the main mode for helping parents to communicate and connect with their troubled children. Connecting with Kids through Stories is an accessible guide to Family Attachment Narrative Therapy for the parents of adopted or fostered children, and for the professionals who work with them. Providing a thorough theoretical grounding, and detailed information on therapeutic techniques and how to assess progress, the book shows parents how to create their own therapeutic stories to promote increased attachment and improved behavior in their child. The authors describe how different kinds of narratives can help with specific difficulties and illustrate their techniques with the story of a fictional family who develop their own narratives to help their adopted child heal. The Family Attachment and Counseling Center of Minnesota works to promote the growth and healthy functioning of individuals and families through professional guidance, with a particular emphasis on services for children. The Center's Family Attachment Narrative Therapy program has been especially developed to help children whose development has been compromised by early life trauma and attachment relationship difficulties.

Having developed their techniques during years of therapeutic work with adopted children and their families, Lacher, Nichols, and May (all with the Family Attachment and Counseling Center of Minnesota) present Family Attachment Narrative Therapy, which uses stories to help parents communicate and connect with their troubled children. Written as a how to guide for parents, the concepts are illustrated through a story of fictional parents and their adopted child. Coverage includes the formation of the child's inner working model; discovering the child's unique model and piecing together the meaning of behavior; and telling the narratives that bond, heal, and teach. Additional chapters focus on four specific categories of parent narrative—claiming, trauma, developmental, and successful child. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Annotation Children whose early development has been damaged by abuse or neglect are notoriously difficult to reach. Through many years? therapeutic work with adopted children and their families, the Family Attachment Center of Minnesota has developed an exciting and innovative technique which uses stories as the main mode for helping parents to communicate and connect with their troubled children. Connecting with Kids through Stories is an accessible guide to Family Attachment Narrative Therapy for the parents of adopted or fostered children, and for the professionals who work with them. Providing a thorough theoretical grounding, and detailed information on therapeutic techniques and how to assess progress, the book shows parents how to create their own therapeutic stories to promote increased attachment and improved behavior in their child Annotation "Connecting with Kids through Stories is an accessible guide to Family Attachment Narrative Therapy for the parents of adopted or fostered children, and for the professionals who work with them." "Providing a thorough theoretical grounding, and detailed information on therapeutic techniques and how to assess progress, this book shows parents how to create their own therapeutic stories to promote increased attachment and improved behavior in their child. The authors describe how different kinds of narratives can help with specific difficulties and illustrate their techniques with the story of a fictional family who develop their own narratives to help their adopted child heal."--BOOK JACKET. Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved '' ... Written simply and coherently. ... provides an excellent guide for showing parents how to create stories that enable the child to discover new meanings: those associated with success, not failure, hope, not hopelessness.''. - Daniel A. Hughes, Clinical Psychologist, So. China, ME. '' ... offers parents a supportive tool for entering their child's life in a subtle though direct manner. Parents should find that this book is one answer to their on-going question of 'What can we do?'''. - Gregory C. Keck, Founder and Director of the Attachment and Bonding Center of Ohio, Cleveland, OH. Children Connecting with Kids through Stories is an accessible guide to Family Attachment Narrative Therapy for the parents of adopted or fostered children, and for the professionals who work with them. This book provides a thorough theoretical grounding, and detailed information on therapeutic techniques and how to assess progress. On a warm spring morning Todd and his wife, Melissa, were walking through a park to meet a colleague for breakfast.