A burgeoning evidence base supports that arts, play and other creative therapies have potential to help children in foster care, kinship care or adoptive families to recover from complex trauma. Written by contributors working at the cutting edge of delivering effective therapeutic interventions, this innovative book describes models for working with children in foster care, kinship care or adoption. Covering how to assess needs and contextual considerations for working with children and families, this book presents a range of creative therapeutic approaches spanning art psychotherapy, music therapy and dance therapy. It emphasizes the necessity of working with caregivers and other significant adults, as well as the child, to facilitate recovery. The theoretical foundations of attachment, developmental psychology and neurobiology are embedded in each chapter showing how they underpin each of the recommended creative therapies. This book will be suitable for professionals directly employing creative approaches in their practice, such as arts therapists and play therapists, as well as those working with children who are interested in creative alternate approaches, such as psychologists, counsellors, therapists and social workers.

Wasps could be heard sipping the nectar from the flowers although the young fox could not see them. Their buzz was different to that of a bumblebee, which he liked to watch dance in the earlier summer when he was younger. He recalled watching them fumble around the flowers of late spring sometimes to fat and clumsy to get their fill from each flower. This thought made him smile, it reminded him of happy carefree times when, under the watchful eye of guardians, his sister and he could play all they wanted. Times now for Cuthbert and his twin sister were not that easy. Now that his mother the Queen had been killed by rivals his hopes rested solely upon his older sister Tundra, named after the Goddess who created the Six Pointed Star. It was too early to grow up, but he had to.