A Therapist’s Guide to KidsWorld Inside and Out helps clinicians to optimallyuse this Psychotherapeutic Board Game for emotional healing.  By using this Guide, therapists are able to access the inner world of children as well as explore the experience of their family, school, peer group and larger societal contexts. The Guide and Game are based on The Internal Family Systems Model, which emphasizes a non-pathologizing approach to human nature and emotional survival, in which psychological symptoms are explored, such as through use of KidsWorld Therapeutic Board Game.  Exercises in Mindfulness, and other coping skills, geared for kids are included.  The Guide and Game bring a potency to child therapy sessions by constructing a microcosm of the world of youngsters while celebrating the Creativity, Confidence and Compassion of Self--- all while having fun!

Arthur G. Mones, Ph. D.

This Guide provides valuable direction in therapy sessions about how to use KidsWorld board game therapeutically.   It describes the framework of the Internal Family Systems Model, and how the therapist and youth client can work within this modality using KidsWorld.  Detailed in the book is how using the game in session provides therapeutic benefits for the child, how emotional growth occurs, how to use the game to enhance the therapeutic relationship and help kids process their internal states, and how to strengthen family relationships. 

Within the therapeutic orientation described in the book, psychological symptoms do not represent pathology; instead, they are viewed as survival mechanisms.  Psychological symptoms, and the emotional pain they are protecting, need to be invited in to the therapy session in small bits, rather than being avoided.  This Guide helps the therapist gently guide the client to deep healing, after identifying the emotional wounds discovered while playing KidsWorld.

Each section of this Guide includes samples of KidsWorld cards relevant to topics under discussion.  Case examples and therapeutic dialogues are presented, as is a guide to create a treatment plan for using KidsWorld to help kids achieve therapeutic goals.

KidsWorld Therapist’s Guide Chapters

1.  The Essence of Emotional Healing
2.  Glossary of Terms
3. The Problem and Potential of Therapeutic Communication with Children
4. Symptoms as Adaptational Strategies for Emotional Survival
5. Working with the Family
6. Child Therapist’s Lament:  “Do I know what I’m doing?”

A Treatment Planner is also included.

KidsWorld Therapist's Guide and Board Game Combo includes both the KidsWorld Board Game and Therapist's Guide.

KidsWorld Board Game Demonstration

• KidsWorld Inside and Out featured in Outlook Magazine!