Trauma can come from many sources for children and adolescents. These include:

When children or adolescents suffer trauma, their integral parts (thinking, feeling, sensing, and behavior) stop working together.

When trauma occurs, there is psychological and physical pain. Healing requires overcoming the pain and bringing to unity the child's or adolescent's integral parts.

The Solution
How do we help the child or adolescent overcome psychological pain and bring to unity their integral parts?

Thinking:
Help the child or adolescent to take charge of his/her thoughts; to correct thinking errors, and to improve their problem solving. (We use role playing, story-telling, negative thought stopping, and other methods.)

Feelings:
Help identify feelings and express them appropriately. (Therapeutic games and toys, puppets, communication skills, therapy groups.)

Senses:
Help the child or adolescent get in touch with his/her five senses and respond to them (clay, sand tray, art media, musical instruments, recreational therapy, and therapeutic toys).

Behavior:
Help make behaviors reality based (charting behaviors and consequences, recreational therapy, social skills training, reality therapy).