Training Programs on Traumatic Stress & Complex Trauma; Social Worker CE Credits
Real Life Heroes LIfe Storybook, 3rd Edition (2017)
TheReal Life Heroes Life Storybook, 3rd Edition, engages children with traumatic stress in evidence-supported trauma treatment including children with Complex Trauma, hard-to-reach youths with severe behavior problems, and adolescents who are delayed in their social, emotional, and cognitive development. The resiliency-centered format of the Life Storybook is coupled with Real Life Heroes treatment outlined in the Real Life Heroes Toolkit for Treating Traumatic Stress in Children and Families. Together, the Life Storybook and Toolkit provide therapists and treatment programs with easy-to-use strategies and activities to broaden each child and caregivers’ "therapeutic window" for skill development and trauma memory integration.
The Real Life Heroes Life Storybook promotes development of safety and trust to counter traumatic stress reactions stemming from abuse, neglect, losses, domestic violence, and other interpersonal traumas. Chapters of the Life Storybook address recommended core components of evidence-supported treatment for children with Complex Trauma and treatment of children in child welfare programs. Real Life Heroes can also be used with children and families who have not been engaged in trauma-focused treatment.
This thoroughly updated edition uses a creative arts approach that encourages children to work with caring adults to develop autobiographies through a wide range of activities, including drawings, music, movies, and narrative. Use of the Life Storybook fosters positive values and a sense of pride in children as they form a stronger bond with caring and committed adults and protection from adversity and stressors. The Life Storybook strengthens children’s sense of identity connected to emotionally supportive caregivers and can be used to reduce traumatic stress reactions and behavioral problems, transforming troubled children into tomorrow's heroes.
Book Reviews
“Real Life Heroes is a resiliency masterpiece. Built on the historical hero archetype, Dr. Kagan invites traumatized children and caregivers to acknowledge their courage, express their sorrow, and embrace the hero’s path to healing. Real Life Heroes provides creative resiliency based interventions that guide traumatized children and families through their pain into recovery by discovering and utilizing their internal strengths and significant personal relationships to overcome adversity and become the real heroes of their own lives.”-Jim Henry Ph.D., Professor, School of Social Work and Director, Children’s Trauma Assessment Center, Western Michigan University
“The third edition of the Real Life Heroes Life Storybook is an impressive continuation of Dr. Kagan’s already long list of contributions to supporting stronger, healthier, and more resourced outcomes of young people who have experienced traumatic stress. Through the use of ritual, psycho-education, expressive strategies, skill-building, narrative, and relational engagement, the workbook provides a powerful tool to promote healing in trauma-impacted youth. The language in the workbook is child, caregiver, and provider-friendly, and the facilitated process of self-examination is empowering rather than pathologizing. Dr. Kagan truly believes that every child and every caregiver has the potential to be a hero—and that ‘heroism’ is often found in every day actions—and this vision shines through in his work.” -Margaret Blaustein, Ph.D., Director of Training and Education, The Trauma Center at Justice Resource Institute and Co-author, Treating traumatic stress in Children and Adolescents.
“Real Life Heroes Life Storybook and Toolkit provides an effective step by step process for clinicians and caregivers to guide children and family members in making sense of the pain in their lives that is due to past trauma. The process provided in RLH is comprehensive in its treatment components. However what strikes me most is how it very tenderly and carefully enables the survivor to recognize that their memories and the subsequent resulting emotions move/fluctuate and will need some anchoring based in the reality of their innocence. In addition, RLH enables practice for survivors in how to effectively handle the sensory-based triggers that will assault them in the future. As the lead developer of the Family Centered Treatment® model of home base treatment that has provided treatment for over 30k families, most of whom came with trauma histories, I can unequivocally recommend both the RLH Life Storybook and Toolkit for practitioners.”-William E Painter Jr., M.S., Senior Director of Clinical Practice, Child and Family Center of Excellence, Institute for Family Centered Services / The Mentor Network
To Order Books
The Real Life Heroes Life Storybook, 3rdEdition, can be purchased from Amazon.com https://www.amazon.com/Real-Life-Heroes-Storybook/dp/0415518040/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1534103550&sr=8-1&keywords=Real+Life+Heroes+Life+Storybook other book sellers or directly from Routledge Press https://www.routledge.com/Real-Life-Heroes-Life-Storybook/Kagan/p/book/9780415518048
Routledge provides discounts for sales of over 10 books and for organizational purchases. Discounts may be obtained by contacting John Defalco, Routledge Account Manager, at: john.defalco@taylorandfrancis.com or call: 917-351-7128.
Real Life Heroes Toolkit, 2nd Edition (2017)
The Real Life Heroes Toolkit for Treating Traumatic Stress in Children and Families, 2nd Edition, provides an easy-to-use resource for therapists, counselors and programs serving children and families with toxic stress and Complex Trauma. This step-by-step guide is matched to the Real Life Heroes Life Storybook, 3rd Edition, and provides practitioners with practical tools for helping children and families to reintegrate painful memories and to foster healing from traumatic experiences and disrupted attachments. Resources include tools for trauma and resiliency-centered assessments, service planning, fidelity and supervision as well as detailed guides to implementing creative arts, mindfulness, 'improv,' and movement in sessions that can be provided in home-based, clinic, school, or residential programs. This book is a go-to resource for practitioners in child and family service agencies and treatment centers to implement trauma-informed, resiliency-centered and evidence-supported services for children and caregivers with traumatic stress. The RLH Toolkit also provides a rich resource to supplement use of other evidence-supported treatment models to engage, and sustain engagement, of hard-to-reach children and caregivers.
Book Reviews
“This amazing compendium of a complex trauma treatment guide, its adaptations for special trauma populations, tools, and handouts, facilitates RLH as both a stand-alone treatment and as a supplement for other EBTs, with any of Kagan’s toolkit components able to be used to assist in meeting the trauma-specific needs of youth. With an empiricism and solid conventional frameworks used in the NCTSN for meeting the needs of childhood trauma, this second edition is a wonderful resource for clinicians at all levels of experience.”-Lisa Amaya-Jackson, M.D., MPH, Professor and Associate director, UCLA-Duke National Center for Child Traumatic Stress, Duke University School of Medicine
“This revised edition of Dr. Kagan’s highly acclaimed book provides an exciting expansion of his innovative approach, Real Life Heroes. A comprehensive and practical guide, it offers an important toolkit for clinicians working with traumatized children and their caregivers. It provides invaluable material from the resiliency-focused assessment to practical guidelines and structured session activities that make it a unique addition to the field of complex trauma interventions with children. I strongly recommend this book.”-Cheryl Lanktree, Ph.D., Research Assistant Professor and Project Director, University of Southern California Adolescent Trauma Training Center.
“Richard Kagan knows how to have a relationship that supports trauma recovery. With the Real Life Heroes Toolkit, he gives therapists, not just an intervention model, but the scaffolding to build therapeutic relationships with the children they treat and those who love them. Grounded in the science and art of psychotherapy, the RLH Toolkit helps therapists and clients navigate through tough times, find their strength, and create the future.”-Brad Stolbach, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Pediatrics, University of Chicago and Clinical Director, Healing Hurt People, Chicago
"A UNIQUE AND HIGHLY CREATIVE APPROACH to helping children and parents recover from trauma; it is inspiring for therapists as well as for the children and families they are helping. The book and program offer a wonderful set of paths with which people of all ages can rediscover the hero in themselves and each other." -Julian D. Ford, Ph.D., A.B.P.P.
Professor of Psychiatry and Law
Graduate School and Public Health Faculty
Director, Center for Trauma Recovery and Juvenile Justice
Chair, UConn Health CICATS and Panel 3 IRB
Associate Editor, Journal of Trauma and Dissociation
Associate Editor, European Journal of Psychotraumatology
To Order Books
The Real Life Heroes Toolkit for Treating Traumatic Stress in Children and Families, 2nd Edition, can be purchased from Amazon.com https://www.amazon.com/Real-Life-Heroes-Treating-Traumatic/dp/0415518075/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1534103655&sr=1-1&keywords=Real+Life+Heroes+Toolkit+for+Treating other book sellers or directly from Routledge Press https://www.routledge.com/product/isbn/9780415518079?source=igodigital
Routledge provides discounts for sales of over 10 books and for organizational purchases. Discounts may be obtained by contacting John Defalco, Routledge Account Manager, at: john.defalco@taylorandfrancis.com or call: 917-351-712.
Wounded Angels; Inspiration from Children in Crisis (2017)
Wounded Angels; Inspiration from Children in Crisis, 2nd Edition, uses vignettes of children in crisis situations to portray how troubling behaviors can be used as clues for ways children can grow stronger after traumatic stress. This text shows how children's behaviors can be used to guide caregivers and practitioners through hidden conflicts and, open up opportunities to develop emotionally supportive relationships and promote healing for children and families. Practitioners and caregivers can use Wounded Angels to encourage a resiliency perspective for children by building on stories in the book that show how children find their own pathways toward healing.
Book Reviews
“Wounded Angels embodies resiliency. The stories within are testimonies that despite adversity and trauma, children can heal and recover. A convincing hopefulness, despite the enormous pain that the stories reveal, emerges which inspires readers to believe that change, healing, and success are possible. This book is for children and adults who seek to be transported to a timeless dimension where human potential is realized through the heroic journeys of those who demonstrate that anything is possible when you believe in yourself and/or others believe in you.”--Jim Henry, PhD, Professor, School of Social Work and Director, Western Michigan University Children's Trauma Assessment Center
“Kagan, a sage collector and interpreter of life stories, leads us beneath traumatized children’s challenging behaviors to find within a unique wellspring for healing. Through attending to the unspoken and compelling metaphors of angels and heroes, he shows us how to listen to children with greater compassion and courage. This masterful book is both heartrending and uplifting, offering valuable resources and insights—not the least of which is a sense of restored optimism for its readers.”--Martha B. Straus, PhD, Professor, Department of Clinical Psychology, Antioch University New England, and author, Treating Trauma in Adolescents: Development, Attachment, and the Therapeutic Relationship
“Richard Kagan shares a masterful testament to the depth of his understanding of traumatized children and the messages they have for those who can help them heal. These stories guide therapists and parents alike to take a step back to look for strengths and vulnerabilities in children and ourselves - attributes that together become vehicles for change. Wounded Angelsreminds us, as well, that reciprocal learning is so very much a part of the helping process.”--Sarah B. Greenblatt, MSEd, MS, ACSW, Manager/Founder
S.B. Greenblatt Consulting, LLC; formerly Director, the Casey Center for Effective Child Welfare Practice
“Wounded Angels serves as a call to action to any adult who interacts with children impacted by trauma. Through a series of insightful and inspiring case vignettes, Dr. Kagan illustrates that by slowing down, listening, and asking the right questions, caring adults can understand the messages children convey through angry, disruptive, and fearful behaviors. Wounded Angels provides practical resources to aid therapists and caregivers in joining with children on the path to healing.”--Mindy Kronenberg, Ph.D., Clinical Psychologist and Affiliate Member, National Child Traumatic stress Network
To Order Books
Wounded Angels; Inspiration from Children in Crisis,2nd Edition, can be purchased from Amazon.com https://www.amazon.com/Wounded-Angels-Inspiration-Children-Crisis/dp/0415518059/ref=mt_paperback?_encoding=UTF8&me=&qid=1534103738 other book sellers or directly from Routledge Press https://www.routledge.com/Wounded-Angels-Inspiration-from-Children-in-Crisis-Second-Edition/Kagan/p/book/9780415518055
Routledge provides discounts for sales of over 10 books and for organizational purchases. Discounts may be obtained by contacting John Defalco, Routledge Account Manager, at: john.defalco@taylorandfrancis.com or call: 917-351-712.
Rebuilding Attachments with Traumatized Children (2004)
Rebuilding Attachments with Traumatized Children; Healing from Losses, Violence, Abuse and Neglect (Routledge, 2004) provides the foundation for the Real Life Heroes treatment model. This is a practical guide for helping troubled children move beyond the traumatic experiences that haunt them. Rebuilding Attachments With Traumatized Children presents critical information on how to understand-and surmount-the impact of loss, neglect, separation, and violence on children's development, how to discover and foster strengths in children and their families, and how to rebuild enduring emotionally supportive relationships and hope for children who are at risk of harm to themselves and others.
Book Reviews
“Dr. Richard Kagan, a recognized expert in working with traumatized children, has written a truly impressive book. Not only does it contain a wealth of information for understanding the complex issues often faced by these youngsters , but it also offers specific interventions that can be used to help them and their caregivers become more hopeful and resilient. Dr. Kagan’s compassion and empathy are apparent throughout the book.”--Robert Brooks, Ph.D., Faculty, Harvard Medical School; Author of TheSelf-Esteem Teacher; co-author of Raising Resilient Children
“. . .provides hope where there is to often none—enlightening parents, social workers and therapists to increase the odds of favorable developmental outcomes for children through safe, planned, collaborative intervention. . . . A much-needed compilation of the most current theory and practice related to understanding and working with traumatized children and the families raising them”--Sarah B. Greenblatt,. MSEd, MS, ACSW, Director, the Casey Center for Effective Child Welfare Practice, Casey Family Services, New Haven, Connecticut
". . . this sensible and thoughtful book is a. welcome (and needed) addition. . . . He even details an exercise . . . in which colleagues can engage to help them understand better their own role in the impasse. and how to plan a way out. To my knowledge, there is no other text anywhere that takes this on, and it is an essential component of working with such emotionally challenged and challenging children. . . Kagan's careful and thorough book offers us a well-reasoned methodology for how we might proceed. Better yet, he provides a glimmer of hope for us, too, because he truly believes that we can make a substantive difference, even in the lives of the most intractable cases:. traumatized and attachment-disordered children. "--Martha Straus, Ph.D.,. Antioch University, Putney, Vermont (from Contemporary Psychology:. APA Review of Books).
“Clear and compelling. . . . Perhaps no other author communicates better than Dr. Kagan the conviction that severely abused and neglected children can be helped to overcome the impact of earlier trauma. All who work with theses children should be grateful to Dr. Kagan for sharing his melding for relevant knowledge and creative technique.”--Kenneth W. Watson, MSW, Former Assistant Director, Chicago Child Care Society
To Order the Book
Rebuilding Attachments with Traumatized Children: Healing from Losses, Violence, Abuse, and Neglectcan be purchased from Amazon.com https://www.amazon.com/Rebuilding-Attachments-Traumatized-Children-Violence/dp/0789015447/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1534262931&sr=8-1&keywords=rebuilding+attachments+with+traumatized+children other book sellers or directly from Routledge Press https://www.routledge.com/Rebuilding-Attachments-with-Traumatized-Children-Healing-from-Losses/Kagan/p/book/9781138169661
Routledge provides discounts for sales of over 10 books and for organizational purchases. Discounts may be obtained by contacting John Defalco, Routledge Account Manager, at: john.defalco@taylorandfrancis.com or call: 917-351-712.