Complete Group Counseling Program for Children of Divorce: Ready-to-Use Plans & Materials for Small and Large Groups, Grades 1-6 - Softcover

Margolin, Sylvia

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0876281242 ISBN 13: 9780876281246

Publisher: Jossey-Bass, 1996

Synopsis

A complete group counseling program in 12 sessions for helping elementary children in homes affected by divorce. It offers sessions on such topics as Why Parents Marry and Divorce, Feeling Angry or Guilty, Living in Two Houses, and Stepparenting.

About this title

About the Author

Sylvia Margolin, (M.A. in Education, New York University), teacher of preschool, elementary, and middle-school children, earned an M.S.W. at Jane Addams School of Social Work, University of Illinois at Chicago and has served as a school social worker for more than ten years in elementary and middle schools, conducting individual and group counseling.

From the Back Cover

For guidance counselors, social worker, nurses, and others who work closely with elementary students troubled by problems of divorce, this unique new resource presents 12 ready-to-use, school-tested group sessions with background information and reproducible materials to help children who are struggling to cope with and accept changes in their families.

The sessions are preceded by guidelines for establishing divorce groups, ideas for beginning and ending each session, suggestions for responding to the confusion children may express, and case studies with actual examples of the children's questionnaires and artwork.

You'll also find valuable time-savers, including reproducible notices, permissions and other forms, letters to parents and teachers, and a questionnaire and information handout for patents? some offered in Spanish for communicating with Spanish-speaking parents.

Each of the 12 group sessions provides ready-to-use lesson plans and reproducible activity sheets that can be copied as many times as needed:

1. General Background on Divorce: A pre-test and other reproducible activities to help children express their feelings and concerns
2. Why Parents Marry and Divorce: Reproducible "Family Album" activities to encourage talk about marriage, divorce, and reunification fantasies
3. Changes: An opportunity for students to discuss their perception of change such as new rules and responsibilities, moving, a working parent, money problems, and more
4. Two Houses: Reproducible such as "People Who Live In My House" that help children discuss custody, visitation, parental conflict, loyalty conflicts and more
5. Feeling Angry: Role plays to help children recognize and cope with anger
6. Feeling Guilty: Reassurance that the divorce was not the child's fault
7. The Grieving Process: Reproducible coloring activities to help children learn about the stages of grief and express their own feelings
8. Legal Issues: Simple legal terms and role plays related to basic court proceedings
9. Stepparenting: Activities to help children discuss the fairy-tale image of stepparents in "Feelings About Having a Stepparent" and other areas of concern
10. A Happy Marriage: Activities that focus on happy couples help children realize they can still have their own happy marriages in the future
11. Review: Reproducible card games for review in an non-competitive setting
12. Achieving Closure: A post-test and activities for satisfactory closure

In short, you'll find Complete Group Counseling Program For Children Of Divorce gives you a proven, step-by-step plan for helping children better understand and cope with changes in their lives and develop the self-esteem and confidence they need to succeed in school and beyond!

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

ABOUT THIS RESOURCE I have led counseling groups for children of divorce every year for the last ten years because there have always been children who have needed help dealing with the separation of their parents. I have worked on and reworked the lesson plans and reproducible activity sheets in the book during each of these years. Not only did I want them to work for groups of younger and older elementary-aged children in both small and large classroom groups, I also wanted to include and address all the issues that arise for children of divorcing parents. There is an introduction, "Creating Children of Divorce Groups," that describes how to start and then run the counseling group, with ideas for check-ins at the beginning and closings at the end for the sessions. Also included are many of the forms and notices you may need, such as an article for a newsletter to publicize the group's formation, letters to parents and teachers, a permission form, and a questionnaire and information handout for parents. Four of there are also offered in Spanish for the benefit of Spanish-speaking parents. Following the introduction, the body of the book consists of twelve sessions. These address both the needs of the group, such as introductions and termination, and the various issues children may face: 1. General Background 2. Why Parents Marry and Divorce 3. Changes 4. Two Houses 5. Feeling Angry 6. Feeling Guilty 7. The Grieving Process 8. Legal Issues 9. Stepparenting

10. A Happy Marriage 11. Review 12. Termination: Achieving Closure For each session (except the eleventh), there is a description of "Background Issues" for the particular topic. My intention was to provide information to group leaders and teachers about the various issues that children in the group may be facing and suggestions regarding what to say in response to the pain or confusion the children may express. Ready-to-use lesson plans and reproducible activity sheets come after the "Background Issues" for each session. Then, there is a page called 'Adaptations," which provides suggestions for modifying the lesson plans for use with nonreaders and non-writers, with older elementary-aged children, or with whole classroom groups. After the twelve sessions, there is a section of the book called "Case Studies." The responses and art work of six children are described, analyzed, and reproduced. So much can be gleaned not only from what the children tell you but also from what they show in their art. If you haven't had experience processing artistic input from children, reading the sample case studies should help. The last section of the book is an appendix. Annotated bibliographies of books and media resources about parents divorcing and remarrying are included. Both the sixth and the ninth lesson plans call for the use of resources from these lists. The appendix also includes a bibliography of references used in writing this book. I have gotten very positive feedback from children who have been in these groups as well as from many of their parents. I hope that the ideas and activities in A Complete Group Counseling Program for Children of Divorce help you so that you, in turn, can help children who are struggling to cope with and accept the changes in their families.

Edition details

• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0876281242
• ISBN 13: 9780876281246
• Binding: Spiral-bound
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240