Psychology Commons^™

‘How Does That Itsy Bitsy Spider Do It?’: Severely Traumatized Children’S Development Of Resilience In Psychotherapy, Katherine Tyson Mccrea Professor

Katherine Tyson McCrea

This paper explores the ways in which traumatized children make use of a treatment relationship to develop their resilience. First, the concept of resilience is deepened by synthesizing elements from two theories: 1) Self-Determination Theory’s emphasis on the importance for a person’s well-being of her/his choices of goals of relatedness, autonomy, and competence (Ryan & Deci, 2008), and 2) Hope Theory’s formulation that central constituents of hope are the ability to conceptualize pathways towards goals and a conviction of competence in goal attainment (Snyder, 2002). Applying this understanding of resilience to long-term child-centered psychotherapy, this study describes how the therapist …