Interventions for Family and Child Therapy Using Stories and Children’s Therapy Books
Families often face significant and unique challenges, including addiction, domestic violence, trauma, grief, community violence, and economic struggles. These challenges can be difficult to navigate, and may require tailored interventions in order to address the needs of both the family and children. Children’s therapy books and other written stories can be a powerful tool in meeting these needs, as they provide a way to explore and process difficult experiences and emotions in a safe and supportive way.
This course is designed to provide therapists with the information and skills they need to effectively use therapy books in clinical practice with families, children, and adolescents. Participants will work through common questions and concerns that many therapists have when using these tools, and will learn how to find and select good therapy books that are appropriate for different age groups and settings. The course will also include discussion of common counselor concerns about using therapy books, such as how to introduce them to clients and how to facilitate the use of these tools in a way that is meaningful and helpful.
By the end of this course, therapists will have a solid understanding of how to use therapy books and other written stories as interventions in clinical practice with families and children. They will feel more confident incorporating these tools into their sessions, and will have the knowledge and skills they need to effectively support families and children as they navigate unique challenges and work towards healing and growth.
The course will additionally focus on the “Do’s and Don’ts” of using stories and books, how to teach caregivers to effectively use books with their families, understanding risks, and going through example sessions using a therapy book with a child in three different one-on-one sessions. Books on caregiver addiction, grief, and building self-confidence will be used as the examples.
Learning Objectives:
1) Identify and measure that the intervention is successful.
2) Identify one way research has found using stories and therapy books can be helpful to clients.
3) Identify one thing to avoid with clients when using stories and therapy books.
4) Learn how to select and use a book at an appropriate engagement and maturity level for the client.
5) Develop skills to teach caregivers how to use stories in a healing way.
6) Identify risks of using stories and children’s therapy books.
7) Identify ways to be able to use story effectively in a one-on-one therapy session and adapt it to the client’s specific needs.
8) Learn how to effectively process story endings and use Socratic questioning with clients.
CPD Information For Mental Health Professionals
Enjoy complete flexibility with 100% self-paced learning you can access anytime, anywhere, and on any device. Pay once for lifetime access.
Course Duration: 5 learning hours
Certificate and CPD hours: On completion you’ll receive a Certificate of Completion to support your CPD records.
Assessment: Complete a short quiz at the end (80% pass mark), which you can resit as many times as needed.
Lifetime Access: Your access to the course does not expire, so you can revisit key concepts anytime you want a refresher for practice.
CPD Eligibility: This program may be suitable for CPD for professionals such as:
- Psychologists
- Counsellors and Psychotherapists
- Social Workers
- Community Workers
- Mental Health Nurses
- General Practitioners (GPs)
- Occupational Therapists
CPD requirements vary between professional bodies, so please check with your association or credentialing body to confirm you can claim CPD hours/OPD points for this program and what evidence they require.
Course Content
Meet Your Instructor
Children and adolescents experiencing suicidal ideation, complex trauma, and severe behavioral challenges - and the practitioners who work with them - can need more than generic therapeutic approaches to navigate these high-risk situations successfully. Leo DeBroeck has dedicated his career to developing practical, evidence-based interventions for the most vulnerable young people, becoming an internationally recognised expert who has worked across every level of care from intensive inpatient settings to school-based services.
As President and Founder of Counselor's Choice Award LLC and Licensed Mental Health Counselor with Child Mental Health Specialist credentials, DeBroeck brings unique expertise that bridges clinical practice with professional education and product development. His MS in Clinical Psychology with thesis research on suicide factors, combined with his CBT Plus certification from the University of Washington and Harborview Sexual Assault and Traumatic Stress Center, demonstrates his commitment to understanding the complex factors that put young people at risk. His published children's therapy books and scientific research on suicidality in young adults reflect his ability to create practical resources that help both clinicians and families navigate difficult conversations about mental health.
DeBroeck's expertise spans child and adolescent mental health, suicide prevention and assessment, trauma therapy, ADHD treatment, codependency, abusive relationships, grief counseling, and addiction counseling. His approach recognises that effective work with high-risk youth requires understanding family systems, school environments, and community resources while maintaining safety as the primary concern. He specialises in cases requiring intensive intervention, situations where standard outpatient therapy hasn't been sufficient, and training practitioners to work confidently with suicidal and severely traumatised children and adolescents.
What sets his training apart is real-world crisis experience combined with practical resource development. DeBroeck doesn't just teach theory - he shows practitioners exactly what to do and say in high-risk situations, drawing from years of intensive inpatient work and wraparound services. His development of therapeutic tools and children's therapy books demonstrates his understanding that effective intervention often requires creative, engaging approaches that meet young clients where they are.
For your practice, expect to gain specific suicide assessment techniques, tools for engaging resistant adolescents, and frameworks for coordinating care across multiple levels of intervention. His approach particularly benefits clinicians working with high-risk youth, those needing confidence in crisis situations, or practitioners wanting to develop expertise in intensive mental health services.
Quick Win: DeBroeck's "safety scaling" technique helps practitioners quickly assess suicide risk while building therapeutic rapport with adolescents - which helps create a foundation for honest communication about difficult topics while maintaining appropriate clinical vigilance.
Qualifications
- MS, Clinical Psychology (thesis: factors in suicide)
- Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC), Washington State
- Child Mental Health Specialist (CMHS), Washington State
- Mental Health Professional (MHP)
- CBT Plus Certified, University of Washington and Harborview Sexual Assault and Traumatic Stress Center
Leadership & Business
- President & Founder, Counselor's Choice Award LLC, Washington State, current
- Continuing Education Course Provider, USA, Australia, Canada, UK, current
- Product reviewer for counseling and therapeutic tools
- International trainer and course developer
Professional Experience
- Mental Health Therapist, Community health center, Washington State (full-time with Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists team)
- Therapist, Intensive inpatient program, Spokane, Washington (children and adolescents focus, several years)
- Experience across multiple levels of care: long-term inpatient care, WISe wraparound intensive services, school-based therapy services, outpatient clinical settings
Clinical Specialties
- Child and adolescent mental health across all levels of care
- Suicide prevention, assessment, and intervention
- Complex trauma therapy for children and adolescents
- ADHD treatment and symptom management
- Codependency and relationship abuse recovery
- Grief counseling and loss processing
- Addiction counseling for adolescents and families
- Neglect and abuse recovery interventions
- Self-confidence building and resilience development
Ready to work confidently with high-risk children and adolescents while developing the crisis intervention skills essential for intensive mental health practice? Discover how Leo DeBroeck's evidence-based, practical methods can help you provide effective care across all levels of treatment intensity while maintaining safety and building genuine therapeutic relationships.
Feedback & Reviews
This course includes:
- Lessons 6
- Topics 0
- Duration 5 hours
- Quizzes 1
- Language English