Book: The Power of Your Child’s Imagination:

How to Transform Stress and Anxiety into Joy and Success

Author: Charlotte Reznick, PhD

Publisher: Perigee Trade

ISBN: 978-0399535079

Category: Parenting

Summary

Imagine your frustrated four-year-old calming her own anger with a few simple breaths. Picture your fourth grader visualizing an ice blue pillow to cool his hot headaches. Or your worried eleven-year-old improving her concentration by consulting a personal wizard to help with homework.

The Power of Your Child’s Imagination will show you how to empower your child with easy, effective, and creative skills for surviving-and thriving-in a stressful world. This indispensable guide provides nine simple tools to help children cope with stress and anxiety by tapping into their imagination to access their own natural strength and confidence.

My Thoughts

The Power of Your Child’s Imagination is a resource for parents to help their children copes with the stressors of every day life. Dr. Charlotte uses 9 tools to suggest ways for parents to engage their child’s imagination. Parents are instructed to ask leading questions about something the child can imagine, the parents continue the conversation based on the responses of the child, and the conversation begins to flow naturally around this imaginary scenario. This conversation is the opening for the parents to use this imaginary scenario to discuss the real-life issues the child is currently dealing with. If the child can describe resolving, or at least dealing with, it in his imaginary world, then the natural extension is for the child to slowly begin to understand how to use these same techniques to resolve the issue for real.

This book is a whopper at 320 pages, but Dr. Charlotte doesn’t expect it to be read from cover to cover, all at one time. Instead, the book is divided into 2 sections.  The first section describes the 9 tools in detail and the 2nd section explains how parents can apply the 9 tools in 8 common life situations for children. Dr. Charlotte provides ways to initiate these types of conversations in between all the activities families have planned for their busy days. She provides sample scenarios to help walk the parents through conversations with their children, and she explains how they might not react the way we expect them to do, and how to turn this situation into something positive again.

I like this book. I think it’s a very creative approach to problem-solving. Parents don’t need to feel overwhelmed, nor should they feel guilty for looking for help. Taking baby steps and introducing the tools with your children using 15 or 30 minutes of your time each day, will allow both the parents and the child to be less anxious. I’m currently working through Chapter 9 (“The Boogeyman and Other Scary Stuff”) with my 4 and 6-year-old girls, and, while I don’t have “final” results to publish, it’s fun talking through the issues in a non-confrontational and non-threatening way (me threatening them with punishment if they don’t go to bed and stop worrying themselves – and me – about the monster in the closet!). I, for one, appreciate the extra guidance.

About the Author

Dr. Charlotte Reznick has dedicated her life to helping children, adolescents, parents, and professionals. She is a nationally recognized child and educational Psychologist and Associate Clinical Professor of Psychology at UCLA. Upon earning her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of Southern California, she was honored with “Dissertation of the Year” for her work on the effects of parental divorce on adolescents.

For More Information

The Power of Your Child’s Imagination is a heart-felt guide that shows parents and professionals how to empower children with easy, effective, and creative skills for surviving – and thriving – in our stressful world. It’s an indispensable guide that provides nine simple tools to help kids access their natural strengths and resources. There’s a mini-primer for each Tool—a sample script, troubleshooting tips, and real-life examples of how it is used. The Tools are adaptable to all ages (even adults can use them), and their benefits accumulate over time.

For more information, or to purchase a copy of The Power of Your Child’s Imagination, please visit http://www.imageryforkids.com/

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