Transgenerational Trauma and the Aboriginal Preschool Child: Healing through Intervention approaches trauma from transgenerational perspectives that go back to the early colonization of Australia, and describes what that event has historically meant for the country's Aboriginal population and its culture. This history has continued to propagate traumatically across subsequent generations. This book reveals the work underway at Gunawirra, a group in Sydney founded to work against transgenerational trauma in families with children aged 0-5. The group then began working with projects in more than forty country preschools throughout the state of New South Wales.Two intrinsic forms of healing that are an integral part of this ancient culture: Dadirri (deep listening), and The Dreaming, are foundational concepts for the treatment. While these concepts are core elements of the project, this book also employs fresh contemporary theory and case studies that present ways to effectively address the deeper psychological origins and presence of trauma in our present-day preschool children, and in traumatized children throughout the world. It gives special attention to the use of therapeutic measures based in psychoanalytic thought and related modes of responding to trauma. Through many moving examples the book unites-through art, stories of The Dreaming, and the ancient gift of listening-a powerful way of approaching present-day work with Aboriginal people and their children.The contributors' work is at the forefront of field research, clinical work, and theoretical interdisciplinary work. This book is essential to workers and teachers who deal daily with traumatized children in their communities and schools. In the usefulness of its model, the depth of its thinking, and the intensity of its methodology, Transgenerational Trauma and the Aboriginal Preschool Child breaks new ground in the treatment of trauma for people who care for children everywhere.

Foreword, Ursula KimAcknowledgmentsIntroductionPart I. History and BackgroundChapter 1 Mirrored Images: The Story of Many Reflected in One Aboriginal Family's JourneyJackie Stewart and Maria LosurdoChapter 2 Gunawirra and the Gunawirra Trauma Project: A BackgroundNorma TraceyPart II. A Theoretical Base for Understanding Trauma in the Aboriginal Preschool ChildChapter 3 Building a Floor for Experience: A Model for Thinking about Children's ExperienceJeffrey L. EatonChapter 4 Understanding Trauma for Aboriginal Preschool Children: Hearing Their VoicesNorma TraceyChapter 5 The Neurobiological Basis of Trauma in Early ChildhoodShiri HergassChapter 6 Trauma, Childhood, and Emotional ResilienceMarilyn CharlesChapter 7 The Intergenerational Transmission of Trauma: Effects on Identity Development in Aboriginal PeopleMarilyn CharlesChapter 8 The Importance of Being Contained: Kylie, for Whom NothingCould Be HeldCelia Conolly and Judy KingPart III. Treating Trauma for the Aboriginal Preschool Child and FamilyChapter 9 Mr. Carrots Counts the TimeJudy King and Celia ConollyChapter 10 The Five Big Ideas: A Road ForwardNorma Tracey and Shiri HergassChapter 11 Using the Weaving Thoughts Peer Method to Generate Meaning: Putting the Bits and Pieces TogetherIonas Sapountzis and Judy KingChapter 12 Hitting the Wall: The Hidden Effects of Caring RelationshipsIngo Lambrecht and Aretha PatersonChapter 13 Art as an Opening of a Door to Aboriginal Culture and IdentityGraham ToomeyNotes on ContributorsIndex