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HELPING TRAUMATIZED HOMELESS CHILDREN The evidence-based and manualized Personal Life History Book has been adapted to treat traumatized homeless children. The specialized guided activity workbook we developed is entitled My Personal Story About Being Homeless. Introductory material in this workbook will guide parents, therapists and teachers to help children get the maximum mental health benefits from its use. This can be done right in their shelter classrooms. This book can be used for children of all ages. As a treatment method, the use of this resource has been manualized, studied and proven to improve important aspects of behavior and mental health. Homeless children, particularly preschoolers, are currently being treated in a model program using this guided activity workbook at the Morning Song shelter preschool in Seattle (thanks, in part, to the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation support of Family Services Center of King County). In addition, fourteen teachers and therapists have been trained to treat homeless children using the full in-classroom Cornerstone Method of Reflective Network Therapy in Family Services shelter classrooms. (See the Method section of this website.) The Personal Life History Book Method on which the guided activity workbook for Homeless children is based was originally designed to help foster children. Peer-reviewed publications of Dr. Kliman's work with foster children appear in Zelman, A: Interventions with High Risk Children, Jason Aronson 1997 (Chapter by Kliman on Controlled Assessment of The Personal Life History Book Method for Foster Children). Results of Dr. Kliman's Cornerstone Method are also reported extensively in that book, focusing on the IQ rise phenomenon. Dr. Gilbert Kliman currently provides ongoing supervision and additional training as needed for Family Services in Seattle. He also supervises additional training for well established children’s services in Piedmont, CA and Buenos Aires, Argentina as well as Cambridge, MA with supervision, treating severely emotionally and developmentally disturbed children using the Cornerstone Method of Reflective Network Therapy. A MORE INTENSIVE APPROACH FOR HOMELESS PRESCHOOL CHILDREN IN THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA In addition to the Guided Activity Workbook designed for homeless children, our nonprofit agency is now prepared to provide intensive staff training for agencies now serving San Francisco Bay Area homeless children and their families with the more staff-intensive method in-classroom Cornerstone Method treatment for use with preschool children. It has been used for more than 4 decades and has been rigorously studied and tested. It treats emotionally troubled children and results in positive behavior changes and mental health gains while increasing receptiveness to learning. The method significantly raises children’s IQs according to well-controlled studies. The Cornerstone method uses the classroom teacher, the teacher’s aides and a therapist practicing techniques as a network of helping adults. Regular individual therapy sessions using this method require only 15 to 20 minutes for each child, right in the classroom. Parent guidance is given weekly. Cost analysis shows this is all far less expensive and far more effective in shorter time frames than conventional child therapies. This is especially true for children who have had severe stresses or developmental problems. My Personal Story About Being Homeless is a collaborative effort authoried by: Gilbert Kliman, MD Life Fellow and Diplomate, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Certified Psychoanalyst for Children, Adolescents and Adults, American Psychoanalytic Association, Distinguished Life Fellow and Diplomate, American Psychiatric Association and Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, Medical Director of The Children's Psychological Health Center, Inc. As a pilot application of his techniques for preschoolers, Dr. Kliman opened a Cornerstone Therapeutic Nursery at the Salvation Army Shelter for homeless families in January 1998, serving seven homeless families with preschool children. Dr. Kliman has been a foster parent. He founded and directed three nonprofit organizations for emotionally disturbed children and their families The Center for Preventive Psychiatry, Inc. in New York (1965-1978), The Foster Care Study Unit at Dept. of Child Psychiatry, Columbia U. (1983-1987), and The Children’s Psychological Health Center, Inc. in San Francisco (1992-ongoing). He coauthored Responsible Parenthood (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1980) with Alan Rosenfeld, MD which was awarded the Janusz Korczak International Literary Prize for "World's Best Book Concerning the Well-Being of Children." Edward Oklan, MD, MPH Cofounder of The Children’s Psychological Health Center, Diplomate, American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology In Adult, Child And Family Psychiatry, Diplomate, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, Qualified Medical Evaluator. In 1991, Dr. Oklan was awarded the annual Spirit of the Family Award by the Family Services Agency of Marin County, along with Anne K. Oklan, R.N., for their work on behalf of young children and families and the establishing of Pregnancy to Parenthood Family Center. With Dr. Kliman he authored seven previous Guided Activity Workbooks for traumatized children, families, teachers and mental health professionals. He is the founder and Medical Director of C.L.A.S.S. (Communication, Leadership and Social Skills), a preventive mental health group-based program providing psychological immunization of children and adolescents against drug abuse and other high-risk behaviors, as well as consultation to schools.
Revised and Edited by John Samuel Tieman, PhD
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