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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great book for anyone working with children who hurt, 5 Sep 2004
By A Customer
As an adoptive mum, with two children who have had incredibly difficult starts to life, it was fantastic to find Nancy Davis's book. Nancy uses a specialised form of storytelling to focus in on a child's problems and then transforms the problem to a positive outcome. You're encouraged to look through all of the stories and find the ones that fit the children's needs, create a tape of the relevant stories and play them to the children at bedtime. The use of storytelling to overcome problems is a very elegant way of getting through to the child's unconscious. Playing the tape at bedtime, even with the child asleep, still gets the message through and in fact seems to be even more effective than asking them to sit through listening to the stories during the day. As far as the children are concerned, they're listening to stories about bunnies, foxes, burnt trees or hurricanes, so they're not thinking about their own problems - the messages therefore bypass their conscious mind without censorship. And often with the presenting problems for our children, they had no or little control in their conscious minds over what was happening - so this method goes direct to where the problem is stored, ie, in their unconscious mind. I've used many stories with our children, to great effect. I've also worked with children with different presenting problems who have managed to help them get over difficult issues by using the stories. It's great to know that there is a simple and effective way to help children to heal when they are still children, so that they don't have to take their scars through to adulthood and beyond. The book is incredibly liberating for me as an adoptive parent, who wants to help her children heal, but doesn't always have the right tools. The book is also a great resource for therapists who work in this field.
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