Therapy
Children don’t come in and tell that they are suffering from grief and trauma or that they are overwhelmed by childhood loss. These things are shown to you through their behavior, drawings, fears at bedtime, questions that seem too complex for their age.
That is where therapy steps in. Not to “fix” them, but to provide them with the opportunity to understand the incident.
How Therapy Works (It’s Different Than What You Expect)
Many people think of therapy and imagine that it would be talking extensively about deep issues. However, for children, and even more for those with emotionally traumatic childhood, the way to recovery is frequently found through play, art, games, and stories. These minor things work to make the trauma less tight and more accessible for the child. A therapist may employ a toy to enable a child to present his/her fear. Or a picture to show the form of their sadness. It’s very subtle but also very powerful.
Some children may even have symptoms of childhood PTSD such as anger, withdrawal, nightmares, and so on, and therapy is a way for them to learn coping mechanisms that they can practice. Not big speeches that change a life, but only small steps, little anchors.
The Reason Why Child Grief Therapy is Important
Grief that mingles with trauma turns into traumatic bereavement, and children can get stuck very deeply. They may hold on tightly to their routines, or avoid things that remind them, or keep asking questions about the loss because their brain is trying to understand what is going on and it feels too big for it.
Treatment provides a slow, gentle manner for them to work through loss and grief without being hurried. Also, parents receive the benefit of it as well, since seeing your child in pain is a particular kind of helplessness.
Bright Flourishing Health is always urging families to keep an eye on grief-processing children, especially when the signs are still there and don’t disappear with time.
Continuing On With Help
It’s not necessary for you to have all the answers. What you really need to do is show up, listen and then take the steps that are within your power. Therapy is there to help complete the picture, the emotional one which is hidden and the developmental one which grief interrupts.
If you are in need of advice or are feeling uncertain about what is “normal”, you may want to visit the page entitled childhood traumatic grief to get more support and be more certain about what children go through when they are weighed down by
