Peter A. Levine - Trauma-Proofing Your Kids: A Parents Guide for Instilling Confidence, Joy and Resilience

Peter Levine and Maggie Kline have done an outstanding job of helping parents, and everyone else, to understand the different kinds of trauma children may face. I have done a lot of work in therapy around my own traumatic childhood event and was able to try out many of the easy-to-follow exercises they provide. I truly felt a relief and peacefulness that I had never felt before. I treasure this book and hope you will too.

Violet Oaklander, PhD, author of Windows to Our Children: A Gestalt Therapy Approach to Children and Adolescents and Hidden Treasure: A Map to the Childs Inner Self

If youve ever wondered how to help children navigate the rough and tumble vicissitudes of life, this book is a godsend.

Sandra Blakeslee, co-author of The Body Has a Mind of Its Own

This book is a must for every parent, teacher, coach and scout leader. It helps us to understand the stages of childhood development and supports parents in dealing with each stage more appropriately and sensitively. It is a pioneering work, a pioneering insight and a pioneering triumph. It is visionary common sense, pure and simple.

From the foreword by Mira Rothenberg

Trauma-Proofing Your Kids is an important tool to help parents and all adults deal with children that have experienced trauma. Understanding that trauma is a part of life should signal all of us to prepare ourselves for the inevitable.

Ron Scruggs, athletic coach, parent and grandparent

A truly remarkable book that captures the essence of what it is to be a traumatized child, while simultaneously helping us understand, appreciate and facilitate their natural capacity to heal. Written with a deep sense of compassion and wisdom, this book offers clear insight to those who care for and about children.

John Stewart, PhD, author of Beyond Time Out; clinical director, MSE/MHC; Child Psychiatry Fellowship Faculty, Maine Medical Center; consultant to public schools

Some books are said, in their originality, to break the mold. Trauma Through A Childs Eyes goes further: it creates its own mold in a way that everyone concerned with the health and happiness of children will be grateful for.

Gabor Mate, MD, author of Hold Onto Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More than Peers

This is the most valuable method I have found to help children reclaim their vitality, alleviate symptoms and develop resiliency to future threats. I only wish I had possessed these skills when the American Red Cross assigned me to the Pentagon Special Response Team in Washington, DC, after 9/11.

Lisa R. LaDue, MSW, LISW, senior advisor (co-founder and former director), National Mass Fatalities Institute, University of Iowa

Trauma Through A Childs Eyes is one of the most valuable gifts one can give to friends, colleagues, parents, relations, and all other people who care about children; it is our choice for the book of the year.

The International Society for the Scientific Prevention of Violence

What could be more empowering than teaching our children how to unlock their innate resiliency, release trauma and return to calm? I am thankful to the authors for the lives of the children they touch by their good work.

Pepper Black, program director, Office of Student Development, University of California, Berkeley

Electronic Edition: ISBN 978-1-58394-972-6

Copyright 2008 by Peter A. Levine and Maggie Kline. All rights reserved. No portion of this book, except for brief review, may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwisewithout the written permission of the publisher. For information contact North Atlantic Books.

Cover photo iStockphoto.com/Daniela Andreea Spyropoulos
Cover and book design Ayelet Maida, A/M Studios

Trauma-Proofing Your Kids: A Parents Guide for Instilling Confidence, Joy and Resilience is sponsored by the Society for the Study of Native Arts and Sciences, a nonprofit educational corporation whose goals are to develop an educational and cross-cultural perspective linking various scientific, social, and artistic fields; to nurture a holistic view of arts, sciences, humanities, and healing; and to publish and distribute literature on the relationship of mind, body, and nature.

North Atlantic Books publications are available through most bookstores. For further information, visit our website at www.northatlanticbooks.com or call 800-733-3000.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Levine, Peter A.
Trauma-proofing your kids : a parents guide for instilling confidence, joy, and resilience / by Peter A. Levine & Maggie Kline.
p. cm.
Summary: This book assists parents and other lay caregivers in the prevention and healing of trauma by serving as a practical guide to stress-busting and building resilience in kids so they can easily cope with our fast-changing world of mishaps, increasing pressures and turbulenceProvided by publisher.
Includes bibliographical references
ISBN 978-1-55643-699-4
1. Psychic trauma in childrenPreventionPopular works. 2. Posttraumatic stress disorder in childrenPreventionPopular works.
3. Resilience (Personality trait) in children. I. Kline, Maggie. II. Title.
RJ506.P55L48 2008
618.928521dc22

2007042471

v3.1

T rauma-Proofing Your Kids is dedicated to my godchildren, Jacob, Jada and Ossian. Participation in your lives, from birth to childhood, and then through adolescence into young adulthood, has been a gift beyond all measures. You and the many other infants, babies, toddlers, children and teenagers I have encountered along the way have taught me more about healing than all of the academic texts in the world. This book is dedicated to you, with the deepest appreciation and with the passionate hope that what I have learned from you can be shared with all the mommies and daddies so that they can better guide their kids through the tribulations, defeats and ultimate triumphs of life. And enduring thankfulness to all the children of the world; you are our hope for the future.