This unique and accessible book unites leading-edge trauma approaches with the power of playful practice to treat traumatized clients of all ages.
Abundant case examples and exercises show new and established therapists how to relationally engage a playful mindset—not play therapy—to accelerate trauma healing and transformation. The book grows up the wisdom embedded in child-based playfulness and grows down complex, adult-focused trauma theory. Readers will discover how to playfully integrate scientifically supported healing principles of Polyvagal Theory, Interpersonal Neurobiology, Coherence Therapy, Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, and Internal Family Systems, along with broaden-and-build theory, affective neuroscience, structural dissociation, mindfulness, spirituality and more.
Most importantly, this book will empower therapists working at the heart of trauma treatment to compassionately hold space for the depth of trauma’s painful, isolating effects while embodying play’s life-affirming, joyful, and transformational qualities to make trauma healing more fun, creative, engaging, and effective.
Table of Contents:
A Playful Introduction to Trauma Treatment Part 1: Trauma 1. What is Trauma? 2. The Disturbance of Trauma: Dysregulation, Disintegration, and Disconnection Part 2: Play 3. Play - The Who, What, When, Where, Why and How of Play 4. The Incredible Powers of Plays Part 3: How Play Meets Trauma and Trauma Welcomes Play 5. Play's Relationship to Trauma 6. How Trauma Symptoms Welcome Playfulness: From Enemies to Allies Part 4: Infusing a Play Spirit into Trauma Treatment 7. Creating a Playful Therapy Setting: A Safe, Sensorimotor-Sensitive Space for Exploration and Healing 8. Growing Our Playfully Spirited Therapist Self Part 5: Integration and Synthesis: Playing with the Elements Needed to Promote Change in Trauma Treatment 9. Playing with Change 10. Playing with Safety: Navigating Waves of Affect 11. Playing with Dialectics: Multiplicity and Contradictions 12. Playing with Connection Through Boundaries 13. Playing with Telling the Trauma Story Are We Done Yet?—A Playful Conclusion to Trauma Treatment Index
About the Author :
Monica C. Blum, PhD, is a clinical psychologist treating trauma in clients of all ages. She provides consultation/supervision and training on how to integrate somatics and playfulness in to trauma treatment.
Review :
"A wonderful, practical, and creative synthesis of cutting-edge foundations in treating traumatized individuals, this highly readable and practical book offers us a new, important aspect for our work: the use of humor and play in the treatment journey across the lifespan. Using illustrative examples and clear invitations on how to open our clinical presence to enable a more engaging, inspiring, and empowering relational experience for both client and therapist alike, Monica Blum provides us with a treasure trove of compassionate insights, readily applicable tools, and a deep understanding of the interpersonal neurobiology of trauma and its treatment. Bravo for this Bluming buzzing garden of therapeutic delights!"
Daniel J. Siegel, MD, founder and director of education, Mindsight Institute, and New York Times bestselling author of Personality and Wholness in Therapy, IntraConnected and Aware
"Monica Blum has crafted a remarkable integration of modern trauma treatment, weaving together contemporary neuroscience, attachment theory, polyvagal insights, and transformational approaches like AEDP and IFS to illuminate how, in a deeply relational context, play can catalyze deep healing. The book artfully balances cutting-edge science with therapeutic wisdom, offering vivid clinical examples that demonstrate how the transformative power of play, combined with attuned presence, can bypass defenses, activate innate healing capacities, and access and heal trauma's deepest layers. Whether working with children, adults, or the wounded child within, clinicians will find this book to be an invaluable guide to incorporating therapeutic playfulness in trauma-informed practice. Monica Blum's work validates what many therapists have known intuitively—that genuine play can coexist with and amplify profound therapeutic transformation. A must-read for clinicians working with clients of any age."
Diana Fosha, PhD, AEDP founder and author/editor of Undoing Aloneness and the Transformation of Suffering into Flourishing: AEDP 2.0
"Monica Blum offers fledgling and experienced trauma (and all) therapists a neuroscientifically grounded and clinically profound, practical, and landmark book on how to playfully transform entrenched human suffering. Thank you, Monica, for gifting the healing community with this inspirational and educational gem."
Stuart Brown, MD, founder of the National Institute of Play and New York Times bestselling author of Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul
"Monica Blum's book is a must read for all trauma therapists! Chapters are packed with important research plus clinical examples and suggestions that promote a fun and refreshing approach to deep healing and growth. A playful spirit is essential in therapists and clients alike."
Terry Marks-Tarlow, PhD, author/editor of Play and Creativity in Psychotherapy, Clinical Intuition in Psychotherapy and Awakening Clinical Intuition
"With a radically integrative perspective, Monica Blum reveals how engaging playfully can not only transform trauma with clients of all ages into well-being but also open the intuitive therapeutic relationship to exciting, new creative processes for stimulating growth and development through right-hemisphere dynamics."
Sharon Stanley, PhD, author of Relational and Body-Centered Practices for Healing Trauma: Lifting the Burdens of the Past
"Read this book! Monica Blum has written a very important and very serious book about the vital place of playfulness in healing traumatized clients. With creative imagination, wisdom, spiritual sensitivity, and skill, she weaves state-of-the-art theory and research with wonderful examples of playfulness (from stomach rumblings in therapy to conversations about duck poop) and strategies for using play to transform therapy and clients' lives."
Kenneth I. Pargament, PhD, Professor Emeritus, Bowling Green State University, and author of Working with Spiritual Strategies in Psychotherapy: From Research to Practice
