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

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. FeelingAngry: 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!

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.

Author Biography: 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.