The Healing Power of Play
Helping Children to Overcome Fear is one of those books that is itself a legacy, reaching out beyond the threshold of death to those of us still working with others on this teeming planet of ours. Jean Evans was a hospital play leader whose life work was with sick children. Her husband, Russell, has gathered together her stories and pictures that illustrate and teach so beautifully how the healing power of play can help children suffering illness to give voice to their feelings and find security.
Actually, I feel strongly that almost all children can benefit from Jean’s wisdom and creativity. In my experience, almost all the young children I meet – and many, many I have known in the past – come into the world afraid. Or perhaps I should say, they come into the world acutely aware that the adults who love them are anxious about . . . well, the children don’t know just what the adults are anxious about [you and I do, though], but they feel it and live it. And this is where Jean Evan’s shining legacy can do so very much good. As we learn how to heal children’s fears through play, we can find ourselves healing; as we also heal from our fears, the world our children live in shines ever more brightly.
This is a powerful, graceful book. I hope it reaches millions of hearts. It is a reminder of what is true, what is everlasting – and it is a pathway toward learning to live within that glorious truth.