fr my boss--3

probably wld b useful 2 any1 working wif children......since e disaster affects not juz those directly hit by e tsunamis.....

There are many websites dedicated to dealing with trauma/disasters, including this one. http://www.trauma-pages.com/pg5.htm
Also, Ricky Greenwald's - he specialises in treating children. http://www.childtrauma.com/index.html

The way in which people process such traumatic events normally is to go over and over them in their minds, tell the story over and over until the feelings are all worked through. Some people go through this process without developing PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) or needing therapy. With the enormity of this disaster and with the losses and subsequent stresses, such a process may take many months or some years to fully work through. The children who are suffering from acute stress mayor may not develop PTSD.

In my experience when I work with children, I find that they often know best how to work through their memories, emotions, grief and fears given adequate support. Some approaches I use include the following, depending on the child (and these could be used with groups)

1. Cognitive Behavioural approach to trauma (older children). An adult outlines the basic facts of the story of what happened (basic info about the fact that there was an earthquake, an earthquake of the magnitude that rarely occurs, and that it caused the huge Tsunami, so that the missing knowledge is supplied and the children understand better. It is important that the information is factual and does not minimise their experience, grief, suffering or fear, but also normalises their reactions. Address the exact questions asked, briefly and clearly to prevent confusions and misunderstandings. These questions are likely to move into the details of the affects of the Tsunami. Keeping this at a cognitive level as much as possible at first, helps prevent further trauma. Then each of the children can begin to tell the story from their personal perspectives, gradually putting it all together and making some sort of sense of it.

During this stage for healing to occur it is essential that each child feel sufficient emotion for processing, but NOT be overwhelmed by emotion/pain etc. or secondary traumatisation may occur. Every child will move at his or her own pace of course.

2. Drawing or other play approaches for younger children. Again, each child needs to know the basic facts. Each child drawing the event from his or her own perspective and doing whatever he or she wants to the drawing ensures that individuals deal with their feelings at their own pace. They may need to draw many pictures over a period of time. Some may want to "re-enact" the event with water etc. in a sand pit. Again the level of arousa lneeds to be monitored and enough individual support provided (by a significant adult if at all possible). Some children may choose to use symbolic things to deal with their traumatic experiences (for there would be many related to the Tsunami).

3. EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) can be most effective if there are counsellors trained to use it.

4. Narrative Therapy is another approach.