Real Life Heroes Life Storybook

"An excellent workbook to help children feel they have a voice again. This book helps children learn in a step-by-step manner, and helps them realize the importance of their life story, no matter what their history was life." - Sharon Morgillo Freeman, PhD, PMHCNS-BC, CEO Center for Brief Therapy

"The storybook is excellent....could be used to assist a variety of problems in addition to complex trauma. A general attachment-enhancing tool for this age group is needed." - Kathleen Nader, DSW, director of Two Suns Childhood Trauma Program, Cedar Park, TX

"Real Life Heroes Storybook is a resiliency masterpiece. Built on the historical Hero Archetype, Dr. Kagan invites traumatized children to acknowledge their courage, express their sorrow, and embrace the hero's path to healing. Real Life Heroes Storybook provides creative resiliency based interventions that guide traumatized children through their pain into recovery by discovering and utilizing their internal strengths and significant personal relationships to overcome adversity and become the real heroes of their own lives."-James Henry, PhD, director, Western Michigan University Children's Trauma Assessment Center

"The third edition of the Real Life Heroes Storybook is an impressive continuation of Dr. Kagan's already long list of contributions to supporting stronger, healthier, and more resourced outcomes for young people who have experienced traumatic stress. Through the use of ritual, psychoeducation, expressive strategies, skill-building, narrative, and relational engagement, the workbook provides a powerful tool to promote healing in trauma-impacted youth. The language in the workbook is child, caregiver, and provider-friendly, and the facilitated process of self-examination is empowering rather than pathologizing. Dr. Kagan truly believes that every child and every caregiver has the potential to be a hero-and that "heroism" is often found in every day actions-and this vision shines through in his work."-Margaret Blaustein, PhD, co-author, Treating Traumatic Stress in Children and Adolescents; The Trauma Center at Justice Resource Institute

"Real Life Heroes Life Storybook and Toolkit provides an effective step by step process for clinicians and caregivers to guide children and family members in making sense of the pain in their lives that is due to past trauma. The process provided in RLH is comprehensive in its treatment components. However, what strikes me most is how RLH very tenderly and carefully enables the survivor to recognize that their memories and the subsequent resulting emotions move / fluctuate and will need some anchoring based in the reality of their innocence. In addition, RLH enables practice for survivors in how to effectively handle the sensory based triggers that will assault them in the future. I unequivocally recommend both Real Life Heroes Life Storybook and Toolkit for practitioners."-William E Painter Jr, MS, senior director, Clinical Practice, Child and Family Center of Excellence, Institute for Family Centered Services / The Mentor Network

"Providing a step-by-step process through which to guide children, the information and activities in this book can help build/rebuild a sense of safety, enhance supportive relationships and attachments and start to generate hope and positivity for the future. (...) for those who are committed to engaging in this therapeutic process with a child, this book is an excellent resource for doing so." - Youthinmind