Sibling Group Lends a Helping Hand: A Guide to Facilitating Support Groups for Siblings of Children with Special Needs

For many children who have a brother or sister with special needs, the experience can be fraught with a wide range of emotions, from confusion to an overwhelming sense of responsibility. It can also develop a lens imbued with compassion and insight. Now, the co-founders of Sibling Group, an expressive art therapies based support group model, have created a compassionate, comprehensive guide to forming a Sibling Group that helps siblings cope with these conflicting feelings. Sibling Group Lends a Helping Hand is an indispensable resource to gain clinical insight into both the psychological and emotional dilemmas, as well as the extraordinary opportunities for compassion, relatedness, and growth. The reader will learn about the use of expressive arts therapies as applied to this unique support group format and gain confidence in communicating with siblings of children with special needs. Resources for other supports are included.

Olivia von Ferstel and Bridget Glenshaw are founders of Sibling Group at the Community Therapeutic Day School in Lexington, MA. As a licensed special education teacher and mental health counselor, von Ferstel has a bachelor's degree in psychology from Boston University and a master's degree in expressive arts therapies from Lesley University. Glenshaw is a psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapist who holds a master's degree in expressive arts therapies from Lesley University and completed post-graduate training at the Existential Psychoanalytic Therapy Institute. Their distinctive professional experience as former therapeutic teachers and current psychotherapy practitioners, offers an informed perspective of what siblings of children with special needs cope with and inspire.