Supporting Children with Cancer: The Cellie Cancer Coping Kit

Cellie Cancer Coping KitI love it when research gets translated into practice. This guest post by Aimee Hildenbrand, BS & Meghan Marsac, PhD shows a great example. Aimee is a doctoral student at Drexel University and a clinical research assistant at the Center for Injury Research and Prevention at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). Meghan is a pediatric psychologist and the center’s Director of Training.

While children with cancer and their families are often resilient, the invasive and painful medical procedures, emotions, and changes to daily life that come with illness can be overwhelming. In fact, children with cancer frequently consider treatment to be more traumatic than cancer itself, underlining the need for comprehensive medical care that incorporates psychosocial services. However, supportive care tools tailored to the experience of childhood cancer and its treatment are limited.

To help address children and caregivers’ need for emotional support during pediatric cancer treatment, our team at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia developed the Cellie Cancer Coping Kit (Cellie Kit). Continue reading

ESTSS Young Minds Events

ESTSS BolognaHave you got the conference of the European Society for Traumatic Stress Studies in your diary yet? It is a biannual meeting with a great mix of presentations and workshops. This year it takes place in beautiful Bologna, June 6th – 9th. The theme is “Trauma and its Clinical Pathways: PTSD and Beyond.”

It has two very nice events for early career researchers / professionals: Paper in a Day – after the success at the ISTSS meeting we now also propose it at ESTSS –  and the Young Minds Event, to share your ideas and network with renowned trauma experts.

More details are below, feel free to put any questions about the events in the comments. And please share the invitation with others who may be interested 🙂 Continue reading

Can very young children do cognitive-behavioral therapy ?

CBT for young childrenFive key considerations for working with young traumatized children” by Dr. Alex de Young was one of our most popular blogposts last year. We know relatively little of young children’s recovery and of how we can help them. The field is rapidly moving forward however and one of its pioneers, Prof. Michael Scheeringa, has agreed to tell you more about his new CBT approach for very young children. Continue reading

Imagery rehearsal therapy for post-trauma nightmares

sleep treatmentMelynda Casement and Leslie Swanson have recently published an interesting meta-analysis on imagery rehearsal therapy. Find the summary below, with thanks to Georgina Johnstone*.

 

Sleep problems are a central component of posttraumatic stress, both in children and adults. Difficulty maintaining sleep is reported by up to 91% of people with PTSD, with 72% experiencing nightmares.

Imagery rehearsal (IR) therapy is more and more used to overcome these sleep problems. Although not all versions of IR employ exactly the same techniques, they all have a cognitive behavioral orientation and include these three elements: Continue reading

Traumatic stress and recovery: Lessons from a stuffed animal

Trauma Recovery squaredA few people have asked me what the cuddly monkey stands for on this blog and since it’s an important picture for me, I’d like to share its story.

When people finish their PhD in the Netherlands, they print it in book form and send it to colleagues, friends, and family. This practice has developed into a serious business and the books do a great job as ‘extended business cards’.

One of the toughest decisions in the publication process regards the cover (other people may argue the font, and a few may think that there are no tough decisions left after having finished a PhD manuscript ;-)). Continue reading