Narrative Approaches in Play with Children

Ann Cattanach is an experienced therapist and writer who brings depth of knowledge and understanding to her writing... Cattanach articulates an impressive depth and range of stories from different epochs and cultures which are a treasure trove for the practitioner...Subsequent chapters are jam-packed with rhymes and stories on the themes of her chapter topics, she uses case vignettes to highlight the themes and the narrative material... I...think students of psychotherapy will probably find it useful and interesting. -- The Psychotherapist, Christine Lister-Ford, Integrative Psychotherapist, UKPC Registrant, UKPC Honorary Fellow
Overall, it is a straightforward book to read and take ideas from. I think this book will be very useful for hard-pressed child care practitioners wanting t o increase their skills and knowledge to engage in direct work with children. -- Research Policy and Planning
What a joy it was to read this book - so different from the usual run-of-the-mill therapy books directed at practitioners working with children. This text reiterates what every parent and child therapist knows, namely, that all children love a good story. The impact of good story should never be underestimated, children learn about themselves from the stories other people tell them, and from stories they make up about themselves. -- Counselling Children and Young People
Each chapter is written from Cattanach's wide personal experience of working with children with learning difficulties, with problems in social understanding and who have lived in multiple families. Her experiences are backed up explanations of the types of play suitable to be used with children of different ages, suggestions for appropriate toys and materials, how to structure a play environment and an offering of a number of specific stories (the majority of which are of Scottish origin) suitable for a variety of situations. -- Naplic, 2007