Martha Wakenshaw shares her experiencing of the children who come to her for healing. This Child of Mine is a deeply personal account of the author's fifteen years of practice as a child therapist. Using play and expressive arts therapy, Wakenshaw deals with emotionally traumatized children and presents the healing relationship that occurs between therapist and patient on a human, rather than clinical level. 
The author's career spans a therapy center for pre-schoolers where she is too quickly made Director, a group home for young teenagers never adopted, an elementary school of high-risk children, to her own private practice. Each raise memories from her own childhood which intersperse the story of her personal and professional development. 
Wakenshaw shares all the experiences of a child therapist, from struggling with her own feelings about parents only trying to cope, to therapist burnout, to her struggles over referrals to Child Protective Services, to the imposition of insurance companies who give her ten session to "fix" a traumatised child. 
There are the children. The Raymonds and Jacksons and Canadaces in whose lives she makes a difference, whose resilient little spirits cannot long be bent. 
This Child of Mine is about the hurt child in us all, and our own journey of personal uncovering.

This Child of Mine: A Therapist's Journey

Biographies & Memoirs

Wakenshaw, Martha

Professionals & Academics

Harbinger Pr

When children mourn the death of a loved one, a pet, their parents' divorce, or a great loss or change, most have not yet learned the coping skills necessary to ease the impact of this pain. By understanding both the signs of grief and the signs of healing shown by a grieving child in your life, you can actively help him or her cope with the grief process. Learn to identify the intense attachments, changes in behavior, and signs of stress, anxiety, and depression that grieving children exhibit. Then discover the effective play-based therapeutic techniques that have been proven to help kids heal from emotional wounds and loss. A wealth of expressive art exercises like the Magic Wand, where kids make the yucky feeling go away, and Drawing Out the Pain, where kids color with different crayons to express different feelings, not only help the child cope with feelings but also help you understand them. Find out how to notice different types of play and respond to each. The book offers healthy ways to communicate with children, tips on how to care for yourself while helping a child, and ways to recognize the signs children exhibit when they truly begin to heal.

Caring for Your Grieving Child: A Parent's Guide

Self-Help

Death & Grief

New Harbinger Publications

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Books by Wakenshaw, Martha