Building a fort: art therapy with a group of toddlers going through the adoption process

This chapter describes the way in which art therapy supported a group of toddlers living in a residential care home (hereafter referred to as ‘the Home’) while awaiting adoption. The toddlers had all experienced complex trauma and had all been separated from their biological families after suffering some form of abuse. Overwhelmed by experiences that had caused them unbearable psychic pain or anxiety, they came to the Home traumatised and without recourse to the usual defensive mechanisms (O’Brien, 2004, p. 3).