Book Review: The Simple Guide to Child Trauma: What it is and How to Help, by Betsy de Thierry.

Professional or Personal Perspective? Professional.

Genre: Nonfiction. Psychology.

Yay or Nay: Yay.

Completion Status: Completed.

Worth Owning? Probably.

Cost: $22 Canadian; $16 US. (paperback).

Publication Year: 2017.

Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

(Library) Borrowed or Owned? Borrowed.

Pros:

• Simple, straightforward, (mostly) accurate information.
• Easy to understand.
• A good introduction to the types, causes and consequences of childhood trauma in children.
• Many practical suggestions for therapists and parents/caregivers of traumatized children.
• Does a much better job of describing developmental trauma than her book The Simple Guide to Complex Trauma and Dissociation, (which focuses mostly on severe dissociation, and not much on what complex trauma is). My review of that one is now here.

Cons:

• Some of the grammar is awkward, and other times it’s lacking completely, which makes it hard to comprehend what the sentence is trying to say.
• Some of the self-regulation exercises suggested for use with children in chapter 3 are vaguely described (or perhaps poorly named. e.g “square breathing” – which seems to have nothing to do with squares at all; “strong sitting” – which has nothing to do with sitting, and only to do with complicated movements of the arms),
• Some of the self-regulation exercises suggested for use with children in Chapter 3 are not described at all (e.g. “star jumps”), so implementing them would be difficult for a reader not already familiar with what it is. It does no good to describe the usefulness of an exercise if you don’t know what it is or how to do it. (How does this differ from regular jumping?)
• Very much UK focused, both in vocabulary and in suggested resources (with a few US ones included). Also in assumptions or statements about the state of knowledge about trauma in practitioners.
  • Insists repeatedly that knowledge of trauma among psychologists and other mental health practitioners, especially those dealing with children, is virtually unheard of. This has not been the case in North America for many years now, so I’m assuming it’s a difference between countries, as I know knowledge of other forms of disability varies greatly in different countries.
  • *Trauma knowledge is generally still a specialty in North America, and needs to become more widespread and commonplace, but it’s far from unheard of for psychologists and their colleagues to be trauma-informed.