1st Edition

Raising Our Children to Be Resilient A Guide to Helping Children Cope with Trauma in Today's World

By Linda Goldman Copyright 2005
    400 Pages 330 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    400 Pages
    by Routledge

    In this timely and much-needed book, Linda Goldman addresses the many frightening events that impact our children by providing the reader with a seamless mixture of theory and practice garnered from her extensive experience in the field. Raising Our Children to Be Resilient includes trauma resolution techniques and case studies, discussions of the respective roles played by parents, teachers and the larger community as well as additional resources for those in a position to help children who have been traumatized. The goal of Raising Our Children to Be Resilient is exactly what its title promises: to help children through their pain and confusion and guide them into a flexible and compassionate adulthood.

    Foreword. Acknowledgments. Introduction. Part I: Grief and Trauma: The Impact on Our Children. Living In a Complex World. Traumatic Events in a Complex World. Talking to Children about Complex Events. Bullying and Victimization: A Deadly Disease and Invisible Killer. School Violence - No Place to Feel Safe. Part II: Working With Kids and Trauma: Home, School, Community. Trauma Resolution Techniques: Helping Children Succeed. School Systems Respond to Crisis: Children and War. Part III: Coming Together to Create Change. Chapter 7: Parenting through a Crisis/ Preparing for the Future. Chapter 8: Educators at Work: Meeting the Challenge of Traumatic Events. Chapter 9: Community Action: From Fear to Freedom. Creating Resilient Children. Part IV: Resources and Information: Growing Strong Spirits. National Resources That Help.

    Biography

    Linda Goldman, MS, LCPC, Certified Grief Therapist and Grief Educator is certified by the Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC) as a grief therapist and educator, and has worked as a teacher and counselor in the Baltimore County school system for almost twenty years. Currently in private practice working with children, adolescents, women with potential loss, and grieving adults, Mrs. Goldman also finds time to teach on the faculty of the Graduate Program of Counseling at Johns Hopkins University and at the University of Maryland School of Social Work / Advanced Certification Program for Children and Adolescents. She has worked as a consultant for the National Head Start Program and National Geographic, and has served on the board of ADEC, and currently sits on the advisory board of SPEAK, Suicide Prevention Education Awareness for Kids. She has appeared on the Diane Rehms show to discuss children and grief, and been named by Washington Magazine as one of the top therapists in the MD, VA, DC area in 1998 and again in 2001, and is the recipient of the ADEC Clinical Practice Award for 2003.

    "This book brilliantly offers essential tools for parents, teachers, counselors, and others who are concerned about the psyched of children growing up in today's, sometimes terrifying, world. Mrs. Goldman discusses ways in which one can foster a sense of optimism, courage, and realistic goal-setting, humor and self-confidence. These lessons are not for children only, and it would do anyone, of any age, good to read this book." -- The Laurel Connection (D'ESOPO), Karen L. Carney, RN, LCSW, CT, Book Reviewer
    "The first thing you'll notice when you flip through this 348 page paperback book is that it is full of children's hand-written stories, quotations, artwork and photographs. Author Linda Goldman clearly understands that if you want to help children, you must start by listening to them. In this book Goldman suggests positive rituals and simple projects that allow children to be recognize as mourners. She concludes by defining key traits, models and activities to promote resiliency in children and perhaps-in ourselves." -- Parents' Book Club, Reviewed by S.C. Torrington
    "In Raising Our Children to Be Resilient: A Guide to Helping Children Cope with Trauma in Today's World, Ms. Goldman breaks new ground in the Literature of grief and recovery for children. There are many books with good advice on dealing with children's traumas, but this one contains a different kind of advice; namely, teaching our children to become more resilient in order to prevent the traumas from happening in the first place. It should prove to be a useful primer for parents, teachers, therapists, scout leaders, and others who work with children in this time of worry and anxiety. School teachers and counselors should find the discussion of bullying, victimization, and school violence especially helpful. The book spells out how schools, families and communities can come together to head off such behavior before it happens and to form a safety net for children."  - Helen Fitzgerald, CT, Training Director, American Hospice Foundation


    "Goldman offers a very helpful, thorough, interesting and informative text to enable adults to take grief of children seriously and their capacity for resiliency humbly. Her text is enriched by many illustrations, drawings, pictures and stories created by children as they do the work of grief and demonstrate their resilient strength."  - The Forum, Rev. Paul A. Metzler, Reviewer
    "Linda Goldman provides a guide for parents and educators to help children cope with trauma and develop resiliency. Compliments to Linda Goldman for writing such a meticulous and user-friendly guide. Raising children to be resilient is a task that requires time, dedication and love." -DEATH - Counseling . Research . Education . Care . Ethics, Volume 29, Number 8, Iphigenia Vavasis, Reviewer