What am I going to learn? 

The website has four key sections. Each section provides advice on how you can support your child across four key concerns:

1. Learning about how a traumatic event can impact both you and your child.
2. How to manage children's anxiety, difficult behaviours, and nightmares/difficulty sleeping. 
3. Supporting your child in facing trauma-related fears, and how to go back to normal. 
4. How to talk to talk to your child about the traumatic event and their feelings.

Each section has 2-3 accompanying activities to put what you learn into practice. You do not have to do all of the activities - you can pick whichever one you think would be the most helpful. 

What is this advice based on?

This advice is based on cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). 

CBT is based on the link between thoughts, feelings, physical sensations and behaviours, and how unhelpful thoughts can influence feelings and behaviours.

CBT focuses on identifying patterns in thoughts. and challenging and reframing unhelpful thoughts and beliefs which can lead to uncomfortable feelings.

CBT is great for children as it can help:

• Reframe how they recognise and understand their feelings and behaviours after a scary event.
• Understand that emotions and behaviours can be regulated and managed.
• Learn self-regulation, coping skills, and emotional awareness.

Is there a specific order that I need to follow?

As recovery can take up to 4-6 weeks, you can read each section week-by-week and complete some or all of the activities over the course of each week.

However, we recognise that each child is different and not everything may apply to your needs. So, this structure is just a suggestion. You can read through the sections in any order you wish and spend as little or as long as you need. 

How long should I spend on each section? 

We recommend setting aside 5-10 minutes to read through a section, and some time to look through the activities provided at the bottom of each section. 

Do I need to read everything? 

You do not have to read all of the sections. You are free to pick sections which resonate the most with you, depending on your concerns, your child's symptoms, or what you would like to learn a bit more about. And you do not have to read everything in one go - you can take it at your own pace. 

Is there a summary?

Yes, you can download a summary of the key points here, and perhaps print it off to keep it on hand.