Art with Heart; kids healing through creativity

Nancy Stillger of ART WITH HEART; kids healing through creativity, a nonprofit based in Seattle, WA, shared this resource with me today. The photo above is their recently developed, Draw It Out, a strength-themed workbook designed to be used as a tool for children to express their innermost thoughts and feelings. The workbook helps promote social and emotional growth in children, and is an excellent resource for your elementary classroom. It is especially valuable for schools with populations of students who may have experienced (or experience with regularity) high levels of trauma. I recommend this workbook as a way to serve the needs of a grieving child in your classroom, as well as a great way to promote growth for all students.

Draw It Out aligns beautifully with an elementary literacy program because each page involves the pairing of documentation authored by the child with purposefully created illustrations. There are prompts, thought-starters, and spaces for children to respond to intuitive questions. Draw It Out is an exceptional social-emotional support tool. You can order your copy, or learn more about the tools and programs offered by linking to artwithheart.org

Here's a little more about this organization from their website:

"Art with Heart is a nonprofit based in Seattle, WA, dedicated to supporting the emotional well-being of children adversely affected by hardship, using creativity to lead to inspired possibilities. Since 2002, we have created healing, therapeutic books that bring together the best in therapy with the best in illustration to help children and teens facing distress and hardship. We offer trainings and programs to help children locally as well.

We believe that despite the many challenges children and teens face – illness, rape, divorce, separation, grief – their hearts can mend and they can thrive once again.

Our well-researched and evidence-based methods allow them to express their pain and their power so they can move beyond hardship and uncertainty to a lifetime of confidence and courage, so they can re-write their future."-  ARTWITHHEART.ORG

Copyright (2014) Suzanne Bayer. All Rights Reserved.

Take time to train

I’m in Fort Collins, Colorado for a four-day training course called Helping Children and Adolescents Cope with Grief. I’ll be taught by grief counselor and educator, Dr. Alan Wolfelt. I’m excited to learn more deeply about this topic I have woven into my profession. The certification step is significant, and I value the opportunity to network with specialists in my field. Yet, there is a huge vulnerability piece to all this. Four days immersed in the grief topic means I will have to move closer to a difficult place. There will be a breaking open of some of the events in my life I found most heartbreaking. There will be times I will reflect on my own experiences as a child of a parent who died; my own grief, loss and struggle. But a new perspective will emerge as a result of my willingness to learn. Growth is so great! 

I frequently refer to Wolfelt’s theories because I connect with his positive and nurturing pedagogy. Founder of The Center for Loss and Life Transition, Wolfelt has created a wide range of resources for the bereaved, their caregivers, and specialists in the field of bereavement support. In his book, Healing the Bereaved Child, Wolfelt teaches that the best way to support grieving children is to be a responsive and companioning caregiver. These seem like an innate qualities for a teacher, but often the temptation is to try and fix or guide a child’s grief, and resisting that is hard. It is more helpful for a teacher to allow the child lead as they work through their personal grief journey. Patterns examined in decades of bereavement research reveal Wolfelt's theories and strategies of employing the Companion Caregiver Method are sound. And he is considered one of the country’s foremost bereavement support educators because of his pioneering research exploring grief as experienced in tasks, not linear stages, tasks that often occur simultaneously. (This will be a great course!)

So for the next few days I’ll likely both back away from, and tilt forward into deeply moving emotions and experiences. Loss and trauma are an emotional perfect storm. But they can also be the place to most powerfully, and gently, make space for magnificent growth.  

You can begin your own training in grief support for your own well being, to help someone you love going though grief, or for your own professional development. Access Dr. Alan Wolfelt’s critical supports and resources on his website:  www.centerforloss.com

Copyright (2014) Suzanne Bayer. All Rights Reserved.