There are many clinicians that have written books or created excellent YouTube videos to help provide ways for us to understand our children and sometimes ourselves. Daniel Siegel is a neuropsychiatrist and author of best-selling books Mindsight, and Brainstorm. He has also written the book, The Whole Brain-Child with expert Tina Payne Bryson. They help demystify the reason children have meltdowns and aggravation, explaining the new science of how a child's brain is wired and how it matures. Daniel Siegel's book Brainstorm is about the power and purpose of the teenage brain from 12 to 24 years. These books provide great practical strategies that help with creating calmer ways of being or simply understanding the child or young person. Early Childhood Australia have published the Circle of Security: Roadmap to building supportive relationships. Written by Robyn Dolby, a psychologist with more than 35 years of experience working in the infant mental health field. You can always ask your therapist for other credible sources of information that may be of help to you.
Although the fields of education and mental health pride themselves on being grounded in evidence-based practices, glaring exceptions sometimes occur. The idea that we need to "think with our body" has gained support from a convergence of new evidence from psychology and neuroscience. Especially thinking about how we have approached the use of play in the mental health and education fields. When the PLAY system is accessed, it profoundly influences growth in individuals and can strengthen relationships in schools, clinical settings and at home. Given our focus on children and adolescents (i.e., youth) we can benefit greatly from theories that deal with psychological change in them and that address aspects of human development that unfold during youth. It is imperative in the health, healing, and education professions that we come to better understand the connection of these theories and how we can enhance creativity and social and emotional growth as a core developmental process across the lifespan. Refer to the reference list for further reading.
Understanding how trauma affects a child's mind - and how traumatised children recover is beautifully presented in the book, The Boy Who Was Raised As A Dog. It explores the crucial role of why empathy is so important in all of our lives and what it can bring to our relationships and the pain that is suffered when empathy is lacking. The groundbreaking work around Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) that has led to an understanding that early traumatic events have long-term consequences on everything. Bessel van der Kolk's book, The Body Keeps the Score explains the devastating effects of traumatic events. The Developing Mind by Daniel J. Siegel and Trauma and Memory by Peter A. Levine, PhD masterfully explain neurological underpinnings of how and why we humans engage in the ways we do. The role of the therapist is to be grounded and have an expanded awareness when working with clients in service of their healing process. Through an enhanced sensitivity, there in lays the foundation of the therapeutic relationship. Resolving our past frees us to live a healthier future.