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Child Therapy Toolbox provides tools that can be used to educate, empower and help heal children.  Some of the tools in the toolbox include therapeutic stories.

The Importance of Story-telling

Stories are an effective way to help children with the many difficult issues that they are often faced with. Children, like adults, experience difficult feelings that can be confusing, hurtful and overwhelming at times. Unlike adults, children do not have sophisticated coping skills they can use to help them manage or work through these difficult feelings. They haven’t yet developed the cognitive structures to help them think through or regulate their emotional arousal. When a child does not know how to express their feelings appropriately, consequences such as: bullying, aggression, hyperactivity, learning problems, soiling, bed wetting, anxiety, obsessions, sleep problems, nightmares, eating problems, withdrawal and unhappiness (to name a few) result.

Stories speak a child’s language

Stories can get to the core of the problem by speaking to the child on a deeper and immediate level by using colour, images, action, fantasies, metaphors and richness in a non-threatening manner.

Therapeutic stories as a preventative tool

Stories can be used to build resilience in healthy children by providing them with the skills and tools they will need should they ever encounter a problematic situation or experience that evoke difficult situations. These could include: a trauma, divorce, friendship problems, conflict situations, loss etc. Providing children with all the skills they will need empowers them and enables them to feel ‘I can deal with this…’ This knowledge can strengthen their character and help towards building a strong self-esteem.

Therapeutic stories as a treatment tool

So often troubled children feel misunderstood and alone as they struggle to express how they are feeling to those around them. They very often end up acting out and getting negative attention or they withdraw and go unnoticed. So how do we attempt to understand what these children are experiencing? Therapeutic stories can be designed around specific issues that the child is struggling with. They allow the child to see, hear and feel more clearly the struggle they are

experiencing and bring hope to the child as he / she begins to feel understood. The story can assist the child to see that the coping skill he / she is using (i.e aggression, stealing, lying, withdrawal) is actually causing him to become stuck and that there is another healthier way to cope.

The Value of Therapeutic Stories

• They provide options to a child of what to do when they are faced with a problem in their lives.
• They provide new and creative ways for approaching, tackling and surviving these problems.
• They provide ways of dealing with these problems appropriately, effectively and in a less painful way.
• They plant a seed in the child’s that can be drawn on throughout their lives.

Who can use these stories?

These stories can be used by Psychologist, Social Workers, Teachers and parents.  They can also be used in a variety of setting such as therapy, classroom, home individual, group or family settings.

Therapeutic stories available

Each story is focused on a specific theme such as: anger management, trauma, anxiety, bullying, loss, divorce, abuse and identifying feelings. The content of the stories is simple, straight forward and interactive. It also allows for the introduction of other activities which reinforce the theme in the story.