The Hero’s Journey
The Hero’s Journey is a psycho-educational, diagnostic and therapeutic tool designed for use with children aged 6-12 who have been exposed to woman abuse. It is also extremely engaging and fun to play regardless of what your experiences with violence have been.
Before anything else, the Hero’s Journey is a game. And games are supposed to be fun so that children will play with them again and again. Beyond the fun though, this game gives children opportunities to learn about violence/abuse, tell others about their views and experiences and share healthy approaches to their conflicts.
The psycho-educational component of the Hero’s Journey is experiential. Children assume the persona of the hero, take a journey and learn many things about themselves and their families. This is the hero’s journey.
The diagnostic component of The Hero’s Journey is elicited through a hero’s journal that each child compiles while playing the game. Pictures paint a thousand words; for children who have often been silenced as a result of violence, this journal is a perfect tool from which to share their conflicts in a very non-threatening way. They can talk about the hero, not themselves.
The Hero’s Journey is a metaphor for a child’s journey within a violent home. Children who have learned or been told to suppress or conceal their feelings about violence can use the game to communicate safely through symbolic images. Since many children who have been exposed to violence exhibit acute post-traumatic stress responses including mutedness, hypervigilence, anxiety and somatic complaints, it is not surprising that many practitioners in the field of children’s trauma believe that direct inquiry may be an unproductive intervention.
The Hero’s Journey plays a unique role in giving children a voice through a metaphor. In much the same way as a costume allows a person to re-create themselves within a role, a metaphor allows a person to relate to inner conflict. Within the game and the journey, children can at least symbolically control elements of trauma and violence in their lives which they often feel are controlling them. The metaphor allows children to re-enact their experiences in a mythical setting such as a fairy tale, legend or archetypal myth. The drama of their story can be re-told and adjusted to their own needs.
The Hero’s Journey will elicit
- Children’s perception of what is happening in their home
- Children’s self-image
- Children’s view of everyone’s opinion of what is going on
- Children’s support network and what they believe they have to draw on to help themselves
- What children believe holds them back from asking for help
- Children’s conflicted loyalties
- Children’s ideas about family secrets
- Children’s adaptive and maladaptive coping skills
- Children’s fears about what is taking place in their family
- Children’s hopes about what will happen with outside intervention
- Whether the child has been hurt before, in what way and the impact that this injury has had on their body
- What the child needs to feel safe
- How children think others perceive them
- Children’s strengths
- What children see in their future as a consequence of what has taken place
Purchase “The Hero’s Journey”
Suzanne Thomson and Monty Laskin have worked together for many years, using expressive arts to join with children, adolescents and adults. Using metaphors as tools of engagement, they have developed a series of highly successful approaches to working with a range of clients who have experienced traumas, have not responded to traditional talk therapies and have been labeled as ‘hard-to-serve’. As artist/art therapist Suzanne creates and designs treatment tools, while Monty, the clinician/resource developer, adapts the tools for workshops, individual and group therapies and interactive learning resources.
Before anything else, the Hero’s Journey is a game. And games are supposed to be fun so that children will play with them again and again. Beyond the fun though, this game gives children opportunities to learn about violence/abuse, tell others about their views and experiences and share healthy approaches to their conflicts.
The psycho-educational component of the Hero’s Journey is experiential. Children assume the persona of the hero, take a journey and learn many things about themselves and their families. This is the hero’s journey.
Cost
$40.00 + Shipping
Shipping Costs:
Canada $18.50 / U.S.A $25.00 / International $70.00
A PDF photo of the game is available by request.
To order send a request with cheque or money order and shipping address to:
The Hero’s Journey,
8 Prince Arthur Avenue, 2nd Floor,
Toronto, Ontario,
M5R 149
Make Cheque payable to the Toronto Art Therapy Institute.