More Creative Coping Skills for Children: Activities, Games, Stories, and Handouts to Help Children Self-regulate

This collection of fun and adaptable activities, games, stories and handouts is a complete resource for supporting children coping with stress and difficult emotions. From engaging arts and crafts, to interactive stories and relaxing meditations, all the interventions and activities are thematically structured so that each chapter contains the means for building specific skills or overcoming behavioral issues. Each chapter contains suggested goals, positive affirmations and photocopiable handouts to enable a child to continue practising and learning new life skills outside of sessions with parents or professionals. The activities in this book are ideal for use with children aged 3-12 to help them rebalance and gain a strong grasp on their emotions.

Table of Contents:
Introduction. 1. Building Interpersonal and Social Skills. 2. Creating Healthy Boundaries. 3. Reducing Oppositional Behavior. 4. Anger Management. 5. Increasing Focus/Reducing Impulsivity. 6. Taming Anxiety and Stuck Thoughts/Behaviors. 7. Social Anxiety and Selective Mutism. 8. Improved Sleep. 9. Sadness and Depression. 10. Increasing Self-Confidence and Self-Esteem. 11. Grief and Loss. 12. Traumatic Events and Illnesses. 13. Family Challenges.

About the Author :
Bonnie Thomas, LCSW is a child and family counselor who lives on the coast of Maine with her husband, her son, a pug, and a chihuahua. She has a passion for creative expression, arts and crafts, nature based activities, and playful living. She is also the author of Creative Coping Skills for Children, Creative Expression Activities for Teens, and How to Get Kids Offline, Outdoors, and Connecting with Nature, all published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Review :
Concrete and creative, useful and purposeful - these are tools that won't fall to the bottom of your toolbox. Easy to implement with clear direction and goals, these activities and insights would be great on their own or as a go to when you need a little something extra. Engaging for both child and practitioner, the take home activities will continue to reinforce the materials long after the session's ended. When it comes to fun and creative, as well as profoundly insightful therapeutic strategies, Bonnie Thomas never disappoints. Her new book More Creative Coping Skills for Children is packed with gems just waiting to be mined. She includes games, crafts, art, theater, improvisation, painting, writing, movement, stories, indoor and outdoor projects, and more - nearly any kind of creative and expressive intervention one can imagine is here! The range and scope of activities in this book addresses everything from day-to-day concerns such as practicing manners and getting along with others, to more intensive circumstances such as grief, loss and trauma and is truly awe-inspiring. I am consistently amazed at Ms. Thomas' seemingly endless ability to bring ever more imaginative and creative tools to aid therapists, teachers and parents in helping kids and teens grow and learn. Every therapist should have this book on the shelf and not be afraid to use it! Though the title says it is for children, many of the activities can also be used with teens as well as adults, individually and in groups. I will personally be using this book in my own therapy practice (including grown-ups!) and as a parent at home with my daughter.