What Children Don't Know... Hurts Them

Lene Tanggaard, Ph.D. Professor, Institute for Communication and Psychology. Member of the Danish Commission of well-being of children and young people.

Karen Glistrup's book provides wonderful insights into the significance of speaking with children about what is actually happening. When a family is faced with life's challenges, or are living with mental illness in the family, professional therapy, that puts words to the experiences and feelings which arise, soothe the child.

The book is filled with excellent examples, which cause the reader to think: Of course, we should not stay silent about what is meaningful to children.

The book warrants my best recommendation. Read it!

Dr. Elspeth McAdam, Child Psychiatrist Benedicte Schilling, Clinical Child- and Family Psychologist and Simon Burton, Systemic Psychotherapist:

"For the professionals Karen has developed a different and potentially very important new approach breaking some of the more conventional ways of working with families when one of the parents has a mental illness.

'What Children Don't Know... Hurts Them' is however not only for mental health professionals but a valuable source of knowledge, experience and inspiration for all adults - pedagogues, teachers, parents and grandparents. We want to listen to and understand the vulnerable child. Therefore, we meet the child with interest and a number of questions. But often the child does not have the answers and the interview can be an unpleasant experience for both child and counselor.This book is an excellent guide for any professional who wants to facilitate openness and demystification. This book guides and inspires professionals and parents alike to enter conversations that create a new relationship between children and parents, characterized by trust."

Jesper Juul, Familytherapist mpf, Author, Ashoka Fellow:

"This book is nothing short of a miracle - especially for the children and parents who are coexisting with mental illness as a significant member of their families. Dialogues of the kind that Karen Glistrup describes in What Children Don't Know...Will Hurt Them, will force open a new gate in a culture which not long ago thought it impossible to have meaningful and mutually inspiring talks with children, and I see the book as an important lighthouse in the new paradigm."

Jessica Joelle Alexander, bestsellerforfatter og dansk for ldreekspert:

"Jeg anbefaler st rkt denne guide til familier og professionelle, der nsker at skabe en st rk forbindelse ved at forst?, hvad der foreg?r med deres b rn og har brug for v rkt jerne til at kunne tale om det." About the book:

Children sense very clearly. They are always involved in what is going on around them. And when we don't talk about the reality, they start making things up. From a very young age, children develop strategies for coping and survival in the meaningless. Unfortunately, children's coping strategies / discomfort is often misinterpreted as something that is wrong with the child. Or the children are not seen at all because they can hide the pain... just like their parents do.

In this book Karen Glistrup gives us knowledge and language we have been missing as parents and professionals to understand kids and how to talk to them in an honest and loving way. She offers much needed insights for parents for how to have honest, authentic and loving conversations with children about difficult topics and challenging life circumstances.

Karen did her groundbreaking work with families within a traditional psychiatric institution at a time and in a professional culture, which would have kept most people from even trying. Her results were convincing, and today family talks to mentally ill parents and their children are offered in psychiatry throughout Denmark.