ABSTRACT
Working with storybooks therapeutically draws upon some of the innate power of the bedtime story ritual, and the familiarity most children will have with books and stories in some form or another. Like bedtime reading, it can be useful to think about creating a kind of theatre and performance, a special space. A natural extension to working with storybooks is to encourage visual imagination and creative art-making with children. Art-making and play form the basis of children’s early years education as a tool to learn and engage with the world around them. Through art-making, children can start to make sense of feelings and difficult experiences, as well as invent new stories and realities. Not only can storybooks be used to explore both specific and existential themes in the life of a child, but equally they can lead to conversations about the therapy itself, exploring some of the more subtle aspects of the relationship between storyteller and child.
