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Recommended Resources
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UPDATED SITE, GREAT NEW SEARCH ENGINE FOR BOOKS AND RESOURCES!!
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PLAY WATCH!
'The Importance of Play for Adults'
- Margarita Tartakovsky, M.S.
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The Limitations of Teaching "Grit" in the Classroom
- The Atlantic
Recommended Reading!
- David Crenshaw, Robert Brooks, and Sam Goldstein
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Crisis & Trauma Resource Institute Inc.
Free Webinar! Tips for Supporting Refugees and Trauma
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Mindful Schools - Resource for Educators
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Great review with concrete suggestions from North American Drama Therapy Association
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TRAUMA-INFORMED PARENTING
Caring for Children who have Experienced Trauma
Excellent Guide for Parents and Professionals - from
NCTSN
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'How a Boy Became an Artist'
Excellent Ted Talk with Jarrett J. Krosoczka!
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APA Resource Guide for Parents and Teachers
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EDUCATOR RESOURCE FROM NAEYC
'I AM SAFE AND SECURE:' PROMOTING RESILIENCE IN YOUNG CHILDREN
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SIGN UP FOR STARBRIGHT &
GIL INSTITUTE NEWS
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REUNIFYING PARENTS AND CHILDREN AFTER SEPARATION
- Dr. Eliana Gil
I am happy and proud to announce that we've started a new program at GITRE to assist parents and their children reconnect after long separations,
Therapeutic Parent-Child Sessions after Separation (TPCS-S).
Parent-child separations can occur for a number of reasons: sometimes parents leave their homes due to hospitalizations or incarcerations. Other times there are issues such as immigration challenges or deployment of military or military contractors.
These situations may require some supportive services to help parents and children re-establish safety and trust, comfort, and communication. Children in these circumstances may have a range of confusing or intense feelings that their parents may not fully understand, or vice versa.
Both parents and children may have feelings of vulnerability, guilt, or worry. These dyads can suddenly need external assistance and may benefit from a therapeutic facilitator...
click to continue
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WHY AM IN THE ONLY MALE IN THE ROOM?
- Yuri Sklad, LMFT, Gil Institute
 For the past year I have had the privilege of working at Gil institute. During this time I have attended several play therapy workshops where I was exposed to practical and thought-provoking information and questions. At the same time, I was faced with another plainly obvious question:
why am I often the only male in the room at these trainings?
In a New York Times article titled, "Need Therapy? A Good Man Is Hard to Find," Benedict Carey highlights the fact that females dominate the field of psychotherapy. According to Carey, "men earn only one in five of all master's degrees awarded in psychology, down from half in the 1970s. They account for less than 10 percent of social workers under the age of 34 . . . . And their numbers have dwindled among professional counselors - to 10 percent of the American Counseling Association's membership today from 30 percent in 1982 - and appear to be declining among marriage and family therapists."
The decline of male therapists seems especially evident at play therapy trainings. As I tried to make sense of this trend, I reflected on my own journey that brought me to embrace expressive approaches...
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TRAUMA WATCH
University of Utah Sheds Light on the Importance of Protecting Children from Trauma
The Adverse Childhood Experience Study (ACE) is one of the largest investigations ever conducted to assess the association between childhood maltreatment and later-life health and well-being.
Recently, a
group of undergrads from the University of Utah, produced a short educational video discussing the ACE Study and the importance of protecting children from severe trauma...
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PREPARE YOUR KIDS FOR THE FUTURE -
THE ERA OF EMPATHY
- Harvard Business Review
'We've entered the age of empathy. The world is changing faster than ever before. To keep up-- and to succeed-- we need to change, too. We need to master empathy.
This is such a different world from generations past. Change is constant. Problems are global.
Information is at our fingertips...
...in the era of Wikipedia, does it really matter how much you can memorize? What's more important is that you can take the perspective of others - whether you're designing a new technology, or negotiating, or anticipating the uncertain. Indeed, how well we do -- whether in the classroom or the boardroom -- depends more than ever on how well we forge and navigate relationships. In this way, empathy is the new literacy: essential for us to communicate, collaborate, and lead.
Read this article by management expert and professor at Columbia Business School, Rita McGrath, to learn about this new economic era and how to succeed in the 21st century workplace:
This is why
Ashoka's Changemaker schools teach empathy and other non-academic competencies that will prepare children to succeed in this new world.
For more information about work that these schools are doing visit
startempathy.org
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RESEARCH WATCH:
Computerized Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Primary Care Patients with Depression
- Paul S. Mueller, MD, MPH, FACP,
- NMEC Journal Watch
"In a randomized trial, computer-based CBT offered little or no benefit beyond usual care...
Evidence suggests that computerized cognitive-behavioral therapy (cCBT) is useful for treating patients with depression, but previous studies of this approach have had methodological flaws. In this multicenter trial from the U.K., researchers evaluated cCBT as an adjunct to usual care in nearly 700 adult primary care patients with depression (score on the
Patient Health Questionnaire [PHQ]-9, ≥10). Patients were randomized to usual care plus either "Beating the Blues" (a commercially available cCBT program) or "MoodGYM" (a free cCBT program), or to usual care alone. Patients in both cCBT groups were encouraged weekly by phone to complete their programs...
At 4 months, about half the patients in each group remained depressed, with no significant differences between groups. A small benefit for "MoodGYM" was observed at 12 months, but 24-month outcomes again were similar in the three groups. Results also were similar on measures of health-related quality of life and psychological wellbeing. Although most "Beating the Blues" and "MoodGYM" patients accessed their assigned programs, only 18% and 16%, respectively, completed them."
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CHILDHOOD TRAUMA WATCH:
What's New in the Study and Treatment of Interpersonal Trauma?
- Judith Margolin, Psy.D.
"The study of the pervasive psychological effects of trauma has seen a significant growth since the mid-1980's, when the term 'post-traumatic stress disorder' was first included as a mental health diagnostic category in the DSM-III. Numerous scholarly articles, and books, as well as personal narratives have contributed to our understanding of the effects of trauma.
This study has facilitated a movement away from a pejorative judgment on the individual's personality, where the response to a traumatic event was seen as an inherent weakness, or lack of moral fiber, toward the recognition that the event itself is the only etiology for the disorder.
This non-pathologizing, destigmatizing approach to treatment now focuses on growth and recovery, while addressing variables specific to the individual (individual risk factors, vulnerability and personal meaning), characteristics of the event (degree of exposure, chronicity, physical threat, unpredictability and lack of control) and the response of the social environment to the victim (availability of timely, caring, nurturing, compassionate and non-blaming support)."
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PLAY WATCH
The Decline of Play in Preschoolers -
and the Rise in Sensory Issues
- Valerie Strauss, The Washington Post
"Like many other American parents, I had an obsession: academic success for my child. Only, I was going about it completely wrong. Yes, my daughter would later go on to test above average with her academic skills, but she was missing important life skills. Skills that should have been in place and nurtured during the preschool years. My wake-up call was when the preschool teacher came up to me and said, "Your daughter is doing well academically. In fact, I'd say she exceeds expectations in these areas. But she is having trouble with basic social skills like sharing and taking turns...
Not only that, but my daughter was also having trouble controlling her emotions, developed anxiety and sensory issues, and had trouble simply playing by herself!
Little did I know at the time, but my daughter was far from being the only one
struggling with social
and sensory issues at such a young age. This was becoming a growing epidemic. A few years ago, I interviewed a highly respected director of a progressive preschool. She had been teaching preschoolers for about 40 years and had seen major changes in the social and physical development of children in the past few generations...
"Kids are just different," she started to say. When I asked her to clarify, she said, "They are more easily frustrated - often crying at the drop of a hat." She had also observed that children were frequently falling out of their seats "at least three times a day," less attentive, and running into each other and even the walls. "It is so strange. You never saw these issues in the past...
Read more
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AND NOW SOMETHING LIGHT...
BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH WRITES SANTA CLAUS
- USA TODAY
"This is what I'd like to ask you to help with," he writes. "A little more time for children to be children. Stretch the moment of magic and playfulness. Distract them from the realities of a world gone mad so that they can laugh with their breath rather than sob with their tears."
But there are also lines like, "When I think about it you've got it tough this year ... Read more
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THERAPY GROUPS FORMING FOR SPRING 2016
Boundary Project:
For Boys, Ages 5 to 8 years
For Girls, Ages 5 to 7 years
for children with sexual behavior problems
Circle of Security-Parenting Program (COS-P)
Group for Supportive Caregivers of Abused Children and Teens
Group for Adolescent Girls with a History of Sexual Abuse
Group for Children with a History of Sexual Abuse
Group for Child Victims of Exploitation
Support Group for Children with Siblings in Treatment
Trauma-Informed Parenting: Psychoeducation Group for Caregivers of Children in Crisis
Please
email us
if you would like to be notified of a
start date of an upcoming group service
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GIL INSTITUTE FOR TRAUMA RECOVERY & EDUCATION
8626 L
ee
Highway, Suite 200
Fairfax, VA 22031 P: 703.560.2600
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