Abstract

A collaborative therapeutic approach often proves the best way to assess and meet the needs of children experiencing barriers to learning. This book gives a concise overview of drama and family therapy and describes how both therapies can work together to provide essential pieces of the jigsaw of emotional support for troubled children within an educational setting.

Drawing on their own extensive experience, the authors give explanations of the models and techniques of their own specialist therapy, before exploring their joint work and innovative inclusion in a cooperative team of multi-disciplinary professionals. The book discusses the principles and protocols of a Multi Agency Support Team and looks at how the pieces come together in practice. Case studies are provided to illustrate the successful outcomes of this way of working, as well as the challenges it can present.

This book will be vital reading for all professionals working alongside children, families and schools, who are interested in addressing the needs of the child on a deeper and more sustainable level.

I can recommend this brilliant, easy-to-read, jargon-free, practical book as a useful and sensible guide for any discipline working in education with children and their families. It draws on the vast experiences of both authors by addressing how dramatherapy and family therapy can work within a multi-agency team in an educational setting. It describes to the reader how every piece of the Jigsaw needs to be identified and come together for the wellbeing and benefit of the child, family, school and community.
Sylvia Wheadon, dramatherapist, psychodramatist/psychotherapist, psychotherapy supervisor, specialist educational trainer (mental health), UK
I cannot praise this publication any more highly than Dr Sue Jennings does in her foreword to this passionate book. It is the authors' wealth of experience and working relationship that gives this book a realistic, hand-on, practical feel.
Dramatherapy Journal of the British Association of Dramatherapists
It is a privilege to be invited to write the foreword to this innovatory and interesting book. The two authors show their passion for their professions and even more passion for how they can interrelate... [This book is] a joyous gift of reality; the reality of something that has been demonstrated in the work place and community with great success.
From the foreword by Sue Jennings, Ph.D., author, dramatherapist, play therapist, Glastonbury, UK
Penny McFarlane worked as a teacher for fifteen years before qualifying as a dramatherapist at Exeter University, UK. She founded a Creative Arts in Therapy project for inner-city schools and, having worked as a dramatherapist, is now a supervisor on a Multi Agency Support Team. Jenny Harvey has been working as a family therapist as part of a Multi Agency Support Team for the last six years. She has a Master's degree in Systemic Family Therapy, a degree in Psychology and a Diploma in Counselling. Penny and Jenny are also co-founders of a children's bereavement charity.
As an educationist for over 40 years I firmly believe that a multi-agency approach provides a family with the expertise of a therapeutic alliance that understands a family's needs. The therapists can provide the skills and expertise to offer a family sustained change. Having worked internationally in schools as a manager, consultant and inspector I feel this multi-agency approach supports a school staff and together they can offer a more holistic and valuable picture of a child and his/her relationship with the family. I have experienced this approach through my support work with a children's bereavement charity and have seen first-hand what a difference it has made to family members. The key, I believe, to this multi-agency approach is that the therapists facilitate change within the family rather than direct proceedings from the outside. In our increasingly complex society, I feel dramatherapy and family therapy have the potential necessary for healing, ensuring all the pieces of the jigsaw are interwoven.
Annie Tempest, international educationalist, consultant, manager and inspector, UK
This book is a clear and gentle entry point for professionals who work in either family therapy or in drama therapy, or for those who are curious about learning more about either, to learn about these respective different approaches, and how they might together be useful in doing therapy within a school context... It takes the reader through a concise exposition of the goals of such an approach, while explicating each of the therapies simply and accessibly and showing the links between the two. The use of compelling case studies offers vivid illustrations of this work. This book should stimulate readers to investigate how they might add more strings to their therapeutic bows, in order to do the valuable work highlighted by this book.
Janet Reibstein, MA, PhD, Registered Psychotherapist and Supervisor, Professor, University of Exeter, UK
This book proposes dramatherapy and family therapy as key components of a multi-disciplinary approach to engaging with children's wellbeing and advancing emotional health within education settings. It is therefore to be welcomed as a positive and accessible addition to the practice literature, not just for drama- and family therapists, but crucially for all school and community based professionals seeking innovative ideas to expand their repertoire of support for troubled children and their families. In this regard it engages the reader from the outset with the authors' values i.e. of holism in considering the needs of children, and of partnership in perceiving families as 'experts' holding the solutions to the emotional health of their children. Its focus on sustainable creative solution-focused approaches to emotional support for children, underpinned by these values, is equally welcome... I shall certainly add this book to the reading list for the multi-professional CPD course I deliver on therapeutic working with families, as it constitutes a topical and relevant contribution to practice at this time of austerity; the commitment to creative, flexible and collaborative approaches may help to maintain the necessary support for troubled children and their families despite current pressures within children's services.
Pastoral Care in Education
The reader is shown how, together with teachers and other professionals, drama and family specialists can help build an emotionally stable future for children.
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