Real Life Heroes

Help children overcome the pain of trauma and develop a healthy sense of self Real Life Heroes: A Life Story Book for Children, Second Edition is the updated classic that helps children with traumatic stress move from painful or fractured memories to a more positive perspective, not by denying hardships, but by drawing strength from the supportive people in their lives. This innovative workbook 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. The results foster 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 that exist in everyday life. Real Life Heroes: A Life Story Book for Children, Second Edition is a therapeutic resource that helps children overcome the difficulties they may face, including divorce, separation, placement, learning problems, serious illness, and hospitalization. The workbook highlights and preserves for children the moments in their lives when “important” people—family, friends, and community—showed kindness, caring, understanding, and courage, giving the child a sense of value that can promote transformation of troubled children from victims into tomorrow's heroes. The life storybook is especially useful for work with children in foster and adoptive families and group care programs. Topics addressed in Real Life Heroes: A Life Story Book for Children, Second Edition include:

helping children recognize and express feelings (affect regulation)
inviting the child to draw, act out, and write a brief story of someone in his or her life who has acted like a hero
helping a child recall memories of adults who provided care
helping a child remember strengths, skills, and supportive relationships that helped him or her
encouraging a child to chronicle his or her moves between different locations and homes
helping a child build self-soothing skills with imagery and body awareness skills
helping a child process difficult memories utilizing skills, support from caring adults, and cognitive processing techniques
helping a child to develop a successful self-image for the future

Real Life Heroes: A Life Story Book for Children, Second Edition is a rich resource for counselors, psychotherapists, teachers, parents, adoptive parents, foster parents, grandparents, and mentors who are working to help troubled children to overcome traumas and to rebuild hope and a positive identity.