Half of all children and young people in the Netherlands experience one or more traumatic events before their eighteenth birthday. Traumatic experiences such as child abuse, abuse or neglect can have a negative impact on the development and behaviour of a child. That is why it is important that children who are chronically traumatised receive trauma processing therapy. But what do you do if children don’t want to talk about their traumas? Yesterday Sterk Huis hosted a book launch for two children’s books that can help children process their traumatic experiences.
Slapende Honden? Wakker Maken!
Sterk Huis offers help and shelter to children and young people who have experienced unsafe (home) situations and/or traumas. Safety and development are central to the vision of Sterk Huis. Therefore the ‘Slapende Honden? Wakker Maken!’ methodology is used by our various departments. This methodology is meant for children and young people between 0 and 18 years of age who have issues as a result of one or more traumas, but who cannot or will not discuss them. The Sterk Huis staff have been successfully using this methodology in their daily work for the last 5 years.
Therapeutic Children’s Books
Tessa Jacobs and Lilian Kessels developed ‘Tom and Sophie Find a Valuable Stone’ and ‘Tom and Sophie Discover a Heater’ using this methodology. ‘Tom and Sophie Find a Valuable Stone’ is a children’s book that can be used to start conversations with children about their self-image. The book’s message is that every child is valuable. The other book, ‘Tom and Sophie Discover a Heater’ can be used by caregivers to explain attachment disorders to children and (foster) parents, including its consequences and how to handle them.
Proud
Authors Tessa and Lilian are very proud of their children’s books. “I read one of the books to a child in our department at Sterk Huis this week,” says Tessa. “It is so great to see that the books can help begin conversations about trauma with a child. I hope that in the future we can develop even more children’s books for all our interventions.”
Tom and Sophie find a valuable stone
Tom, Sophie and Jenny go to the forest They play hide-and-seek and un into a squirrel. The squirrel helps them find good hiding spots. In the forest, they discover a hut. When Sophie takes a stone from the hut, it falls apart. Tom and Sophie discover that the stone was very important. But what about children? Is every child just as valuable as that stone?
‘Tom and Sophie find a valuable stone’ is a children’s book that social workers can use to explain the concept of self-image to children. The ‘Sleeping Dogs’ method (Struik, 2016) is used to prepare early childhood chronically traumatised children to process their traumatic experiences.
Price: € 19,95
(exclusive shipping)
Size: A4 – Hardcover
Pages: 15
Shipping € 24,-
(Australia and New Zealand )
Tom and Sophie discover a heather
Tom, Sophie and Jenny want to build a fort in the woods. Suddenly they discover a house with an old heater. A mouse explains that the heater doesn’t light anymore because no one took care of it. The mouse says the children have a kind of heater in their hearts too, that has to be lit by their caregivers. When the heater stays warm, children often feel warm and happy. But when the heater is not warm, the can feel sad and unhappy.
‘Tom and Sophie discover a heater’ is a children’s book that social workers can use to explain the concept of attachment disorders by children and (foster) parents. The intervention ‘the heater is part of the ‘Sleeping Dogs’ method (Struik, 2016) used to prepare early childhood chronically traumatised children to process their traumatic experiences.
Price: € 19,95
(exclusive shipping)
Size: A4 – Hardcover
Pages: 15
Shipping € 24,-
(Australia and New Zealand )
