What is fairy tale therapy for children and when is it necessary?

If your child does not want to go to kindergarten or school, is very afraid of something, does not sleep well, is too withdrawn, or shows aggression, storytelling therapy can help. What is storytelling therapy for children and what methods can be used to help a child cope with problems.

What is Fairy Tale Therapy
Fairy tale therapy is one of the effective directions of psychology. Fairy tales as therapy have gained popularity because they help adults and children communicate in the same language. With the help of cautionary tales, it is easier for an adult to explain difficult things to a child, get close to him and help him solve a problem.

Therapy is based on educating the child through the example of the characters, where he or she learns to parse, analyze and find a way out of situations that happen to him or her. For example, a fairy tale can help one understand that everyone makes mistakes and that this is normal, to teach to admit one’s mistakes, to make friends, to help friends in need, etc.

Why do fairy tales work better with children?
Children of preschool and primary school age live in a world of fairy tales. During this period, they have a predominance of visual imagery and find it easier to navigate, experience emotions, and learn in an imaginary world.

A child can listen to a favorite fairy tale over and over again and perceive the accomplishments of the characters as his or her own, i.e., transfer the character’s experience to himself or herself. For example, by going through a series of obstacles in a fairy tale story to become stronger, more resilient, wiser and stop being afraid.

Also, activities built through the plots of favorite fairy tales do not overload children’s brains and are remembered for a long time, working in the long run.

Functions of fairy tales
In children’s therapy and pedagogy, fairy tales are used to:

help a child overcome various fears: confined spaces, darkness, water, animals, and more;
to bring up the necessary traits of character and personality: courage, communication skills, initiative, diligence, the ability to bring things to an end;
to help learn how to behave in difficult situations;
to get rid of complexes;
to fight various psychological disorders.
to form the right concepts of good and evil;
to develop imagination, fantasy and creative thinking;
instill in your child the right values from childhood.

What kinds of fairy tales are used in therapy
Two main types of fairy tales can be distinguished: educational and therapeutic. Both folk and fictional fairy tales can be used. Fairy tales for educational purposes address and help resolve minor problems with behavior, overcoming fears (of heights, darkness, water), and adapting to a new group of people.

Therapeutic fairy tales are aimed at helping the child cope with deeper problems. For example, to overcome the loss of a loved one or a serious injury.

If it is a psychologically corrective fairy tale, it should be based on the child’s veiled problem. At the end of this fairy tale, the child decides for him or herself what the hero should do to cope with the problem.

All cases and children are different, therefore there are no universal plots. Choosing fairy tales for therapy, parents, first of all, should be guided by the child’s reaction to the various stories. For example, someone will find the story of Koloboka tragic and horrible, because the Fox ate him, and someone will listen to it and draw conclusions about how not to behave in order to avoid being in the shoes of the main character.

Methods of fairy tale therapy
Let’s talk about how to use storytelling therapy for children:

Storytelling and Composing.
Parents can invent and tell a therapeutic fairy tale themselves. For example, they can take a real situation and translate it into fairy tale characters. For example, once upon a time, there lived a family of dolphins. The dolphin mother, the dolphin father and the dolphin son… According to the story, the dolphin family is in the same situations as, for example, your family, passes certain tests, and then everything ends well.

It is possible to involve the child in the composing of the story, just help him in the process so that he does not lose the plot line, because the tale must necessarily end with summing up – the hero learns a lesson from his experience and changes his behavior, thanks to which his life is improved.

A bonus for children who compose fairy tales on their own becomes a developed imagination and creative thinking.

Drawing
In therapy, after reading a fairy tale, it is necessary to “bring it to life” – to draw, model or make an applique. Through creativity, the child can express and live out their emotions and get rid of tension. Parents do not need to pay attention to the quality of the image, the process is important here. For the first time, the picture can seem gloomy and even creepy, but after working through the situation the second and subsequent times, the colors in the drawing will be more “cheerful,” and the characters will be lovable.

Making dolls
This is a very strong method of story therapy, in which the process of making dolls plays an important role. The idea is to “bring a fairy tale to life” with the help of handmade characters. Psychologists equate the effect of sewing dolls to meditation, in which there are serious changes in personality.