ABSTRACT
Psychoeducation allows the child to discover what his ‘princess’ is (i.e., what motivates him) and to fall in love with that princess. In this chapter the first step towards stabilization is explained, how a child can be motivated for trauma processing and how psychoeducation can be used for various aspects of the problem.
It is important to listen carefully for signs of resistance or opposition. In fact it is better to spend too much time on motivating a child than to spend too little and thereby run the risk of losing the child. Ask them how they think they can benefit
from trauma processing, what their ‘princess’ is. Often they will mention such things as: not being angry all the time, having more friends, no more nightmares, or parents’ approval. If the child does not know what he is doing it for, he will not be motivated to start and he will not want to dig up old material.
