What to Do When Children Clam Up in Psychotherapy Interventions to Facilitate Communication

Therapists who work with children and adolescents are frequently faced with nonresponsive, reticent, or completely nonverbal clients. This volume brings together expert clinicians who explore why 4- to 16-year-olds may have difficulty talking and provide creative ways to facilitate communication. A variety of play, art, movement, and animal-assisted therapies, as well as trauma-focused therapy with adolescents, are illustrated with vivid clinical material. Contributors give particular attention to the neurobiological effects of trauma, how they manifest in the body when children "clam up," and how to help children self-regulate and feel safe. Most chapters conclude with succinct lists of recommended practices for engaging hard-to-reach children that therapists can immediately try out in their own work.

Cathy A. Malchiodi, PhD, ATR-BC, LPAT, LPCC, REAT, is an art therapist, creative arts therapist, and clinical mental health counselor, as well as a recognized authority on art therapy with children, adults, and families. She has given more than 350 presentations on art therapy and has published numerous articles, chapters, and books, including Understanding Children's Drawings; Handbook of Art Therapy, Second Edition; and Creative Interventions with Traumatized Children. A faculty member at Lesley University, Dr. Malchiodi is founder of the Trauma-Informed Practices and Expressive Arts Therapy Institute and President of Art Therapy Without Borders. She is the first person to have received all three of the American Art Therapy Association's highest honors: Distinguished Service Award, Clinician Award, and Honorary Life Member Award. She has also received honors from the Kennedy Center and Very Special Arts in Washington, DC. She is coeditor (with David A. Crenshaw) of Guilford's Creative Arts and Play Therapy series.
 
David A. Crenshaw, PhD, ABPP, RPT-S, is Clinical Director of the Children's Home of Poughkeepsie, New York, and Faculty Associate at Johns Hopkins University. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and of its Division of Child and Adolescent Psychology. Dr. Crenshaw is Past President of the Hudson Valley Psychological Association, which honored him with its Lifetime Achievement Award, and of the New York Association for Play Therapy. He serves on the editorial board of the International Journal of Play Therapy and has published numerous journal articles, book chapters, and books on child therapy, child abuse and trauma, and resilience in children. He is a frequent presenter at statewide and national conferences on play therapy. He is coeditor (with Cathy A. Malchiodi) of Guilford's Creative Arts and Play Therapy series.
 

I. General Principles to Guide Practice 
1. Why Children Clam Up in Therapy, Cathy A. Malchiodi & David A. Crenshaw 
2. Resistance in Child Psychotherapy: Playing Hide-and-Seek, David A. Crenshaw 
3. A Neurosequential Therapeutics Approach to Guided Play, Play Therapy, and Activities for Children Who Won't Talk, Richard L. Gaskill & Bruce D. Perry 
II. Master Clinician Approaches
4. The Sound of Silence in Play Therapy, Anne L. Stewart & Lennis G. Echterling 
5. Play Therapy with Children Who Don't Want to Talk: "Sometimes We Talk, and Sometimes We Play", Nancy Boyd Webb 
6. Polyvagal Informed Dance/Movement Therapy with Children Who Shut Down: Restoring Core Rhythmicity, Amber Elizabeth Gray & Stephen Porges 
7. Play Therapy through the Lens of Interpersonal Neurobiology: Up and over the 
Mountain, Theresa Kestly 
8. Treating Adolescent Attachment Trauma: Ten Ways to Co-Regulate and Stay Connected, Martha B. Straus 
9. Silencing and the Culture of Sexual Violence: The “Shadow Abuser”, Sarah Caprioli & David A. Crenshaw 
10. Art Therapy Approaches to Facilitate Verbal Expression: Getting Past the Impasse, Cathy A. Malchiodi 
11. Animal-Assisted Play Therapy with Reticent Children: With a Little Help from Friends, Risë VanFleet & Tracie Faa-Thompson 
Index