Episode 3: Building Belonging Through Identification, Representation, Diversity, and Inclusion in Books and Play

Hi everyone!

It's Friday again and we are excited to publish the third episode of “Pages and Play”. This episode  explores how bibliotherapy and play therapy support young minds through identification, representation, diversity, and inclusion.

The discussion outlines bibliotherapy stages: identification (“shock of recognition”), representation across identities, diversity of perspectives, and inclusion as true belonging, with research noting fiction builds empathy, reduces prejudice, and strengthens theory of mind. Practical techniques include letter-writing to protagonists and narrative therapy (externalising problems, deconstructing dominant narratives, re-authoring hopeful stories). 

A fictionalised case of Kya Clark from "Where the Crawdads Sing" in play therapy illustrates the process of navigating feelings of abandonment, conditional love beliefs, and finding belonging through nature narratives. We recommend a variety of book and resources including “My Grandmother’s Hands,” Robbie Harris’s “Let’s Talk About…” series, Elliot Page’s “Pageboy,” as well as reading lists on booktherapy.io and other diversity-focused sites.

You can listen here:

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2598949/episodes/18909353 Or wherever you listen to podcasts. Simply search for "Pages and Play" and subscribe so you don't miss an episode!

I hope you enjoy this episode and Pages and Play Series! And as always we’d love to hear your reflections and thoughts. 

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Chapters:

00:00 Welcome to Pages and Play

03:26 Identification and the Shock of Recognition

05:41 Representation, Diversity and Inclusion

08:27 Inclusive Language in Play

10:30 How Fiction Builds Empathy Skills

16:28 Representation and Role Models

19:17 Letter Writing in Bibliotherapy

21:40 Narrative Therapy 

25:12 Libraries for Reading Diversity

27:13 Case Study - Kaya in Play Therapy

37:17 Play Prompt 

38:14 Book Recommendations and Resources

41:38 Closing Thoughts 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 1:05

Welcome back to Pages and Play, the power of bibliotherapy and playtherapy on young minds. On today's episode, we are going to talk about one of the most valuable things that both books and plays do exceptionally well: bringing key platforms for identification, representation, diversity, and inclusion.

SPEAKER_00 1:24

Thanks, Freya. I'm so excited to share this episode. Let's start with Play, Freya. Do you want to talk about how play serves as an excellent platform for this?

unknown 1:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:35

So play naturally helps young minds by encouraging curiosity and openness. And through playful exploration, such as trying out new activities, meeting new people, learning on the hands-on, we nurture that growth. So early forms of play are instrumental in kind of building this empathy. For example, neuroscientists at Cardiff University, they conducted a multi-year study which examined the effects of doll playing, playing with dolls. And this research revealed that children discussing others' thoughts and emotions more frequently when they were engaging in this dole play than they would say compared to tablet-based games. And role play enables us to draw and experiment with these different roles in a kind of playful manner as well. And it's a key part in the identification of formulation, as well as that empathy development. Empathy is crucial in terms of facilitating that successful integration that you see later on. And it helps children to navigate cultural differences and decrease the stress related to change and forming those relationships. And in addition, it helps break down those social barriers and encourages enjoyable perspective taking. Engage in that play. Have fun with languages, with music, events, activities that broadens their world and their outlook. And acknowledging those individual differences helps build a community that sees diversity as a strength and encourages our children to do the same thing. Books serve a lifelong gateway into understanding and connecting with different identities and forms of diversity, a topic which would you like to talk a little bit further about?

SPEAKER_00 3:23

Yes, absolutely. I think bringing in books and play are wonderful ways to show children what diversity and inclusion represent. So thank you, Freya. I'd love to share, and I'd love our viewers to perhaps see it like this. And I always bring it back to this methodology that I use in my own bibliotherapy sessions, which is all about identification. That initial identification piece is the first stage in any bibliotherapy process. And identification shows us that I'm not alone, that I belong. Representation tells us that people like me matter, and then diversity signals that others live differently, and that it's very valid to be who you are, to be yourself. And then finally, inclusion brings it all together and shows us that we can belong together. And it's not necessarily just about fitting in, but it is about belonging. And books bring all of these elements together, they let us enter others' minds while staying safely ourselves. As I said, it's not about fitting in, it's about belonging. And here's how each piece works. So I mentioned identification as being the first stage in any bibliotherapy process. And the experience of identification is really about seeing parts of yourself in a character. So it's that initial recognition or resonance that we feel. And I often call it to quote Caroline Schroads, a pioneering bibliotherapist, the shock of recognition. And this is where a reader suddenly recognizes familiar thoughts, behaviors, fears, or hopes in a character really representing their own, and leads to this internal monologue that lets us witness how a character is reasoning or coping, allowing us to connect with that part of the character because it really resonates with us. And then also identifying and seeing the character struggles helps us feel less isolated, and all of a sudden it brings about the shared human experience. So this leads to a reduction in shame and also helps increase our own self-awareness and self-understanding. Identification can also happen through that moment when we're really focused, or shall I say, hyper-focused on a story or narrative because it's really resonating with us, or we have a sense of overwhelm, or what I call sensory overload, because again, something is really resonating with us inside. And other times we may feel anxious because we're connecting with a feeling that's being experienced by the character of anxiety that is really resonating with us as well, or we can really empathize with the character in terms of maybe the character feels really othered, and we have ourselves experienced that feeling of otherness. So that's that initial recognition piece. But of course, as we see the character's arc through the story and perhaps the character transforming or surviving or growing, we also feel that sense of hope and that sense of possibility for ourselves to also have this positive happy ending or a positive experience. Representation is not only about showcasing the stories of people similar to us, but it's also about illustrating who gets to exist on the page. And that should be representative of the full spectrum of people that's out there. For example, are there LGBTQ characters? Are there disabled or neurodivergent characters in the story? Uh, are different races and cultures and body types and ages being shown? Seeing people like this, all like ourselves, being represented sends a really powerful message that we belong in these stories, that our lives are narratively important. And good representation, given that it shows the full spectrum of characters out there, shows us that we are allowed to live our full lives, our best lives. And diversity refers to the range of perspectives that are included. So the way books show this is that they represent the different ways that families work, the different moral systems, the different communication styles, the different relationships to community or authority. So by reading about these different characters in a book or the different narratives, readers are exposed to a variety of experiences that help to build their empathy as well as their flexibility in thinking, embracing others, embracing themselves. It helps readers really understand that there are many valid ways to be human in all our messiness. And then, of course, we've got inclusion, where it's not just about characters being shown on the page or being validated, it's also about welcoming them, valuing them. And these narratives allow and give marginalized characters agency. They show that communities adapt to people. So readers learn what belonging can look like. And why is fiction and narrative non-fiction uniquely good at this? Well, research shows that not only do stories, particularly fiction, increase empathy, reduce prejudice, help people rehearse emotional coping, and improve understanding of mental states and theory of mind, or what I call being able to see things from another person's perspective. A narrative nonfiction is really similar to fiction. So the memoir, for example. Memoir and novel, I always say are two very similar narrative formats because they're very character-driven and you are emotionally involved. Frey, I'm conscious that I dived into this a bit, but I know you also have some really important insights on the power of language in all of this. So I'd love to hear your thoughts as well.

SPEAKER_01 9:33

Yeah, so specifically, I'm looking here at talking about inclusive language. So that means avoid labels and you really want to build upon that open conversation. So in playtherapy sessions, we refrain from labelling objects until the child does. So for example, instead of saying you're moving that block, we don't assign meaning because that block could represent a car, a plane, the child themselves, or even a snake. We simply don't know. But this approach can fit into the broader concept of inclusive language. So we avoid making assumptions as we do as a culturalist. So language shapes how we perceive the world and each other. So for instance, we use broader inclusive terms such as parent or carer instead of assuming mum and dad. We are always looking at choosing the correct pronoun when known and demonstrating respect for everyone's lived experience. But furthermore, from this, open conversations are key to avoiding these assumptions and creating opportunities for honest dialogue about inclusion and difference and respect. These discussions help people feel safe and be able to share their perspectives and their experiences. So by encouraging this openness with your child at a very young age, you can break down some of these barriers from forming and dispelling these kind of misconceptions. As you were saying it a little bit there as well, that books and play are natural builders for empathy. They encourage activity and discussion that enables individuals to understand each other's perspectives. But this comes in other forms as well. This is in storytelling as a whole. This is in role play. This is in all play in which they are taking on different roles. It's in reflective listening. And these methods foster that understanding and that kindness that is fundamental to genuine inclusion. Bigot, I would welcome your insights a bit more on books and the development of empathy.

SPEAKER_00 11:41

Thanks, Bara. I love this topic because it gets at one of the quiet superpowers of reading fiction, which is that empathy isn't just feeling sorry for someone, it's the ability to really understand another person's inner world, what they believe, fear, hope, and why they act the way they do. And books are uniquely good at training this skill. So just to break it down, how do stories build empathy? They give you access to private thoughts. So in real life, we see behavior, but in novels, we hear the thinking behind the behavior, we hear the doubt before a decision, the history behind the reaction or the context, the fear behind the anger, and the logic that makes a strange choice make sense, more logical, more rational. So you are essentially getting a real understanding and context of the emotional world of a character before we see their behavior. And this really helps us understand people from the inside out. In addition, books give you the space to slow down. Real conversations and interactions happen really quickly, and we are then left with making these really superficial snap judgments. Whereas reading forces you to almost focus and sit with all the complexity, all the cognitive dissonance. You may dislike character, but still understand them and therefore have more empathy towards them. And that ability to hold the discomfort while staying curious, while staying open, while welcoming all this transparency is essentially empathy in action. And that's why reading is so powerful and different from daily interactions that we have. They really enable you to safely experience this difference, but also be able to embrace it and also be open to it and also be less judgmental. So through fiction, we can really empathize with somebody with trauma, we can understand somebody who's neurodivergent, we can welcome someone from another culture because all of a sense we understand their world as well as hold the space for somebody who's morally conflicted, and we allow them to sit with their overwhelm and their conflict and understand both perspectives of that conflict without any sort of judgment, defensiveness, or imposing even a sense of shame on them, which is the goal of empathy often. You do help you practice emotional literacy.

SPEAKER_01 14:22

Vidal, when you were saying that, it just popped up into my head. My middle child said to me, Books are so amazing, they're like magic, because you just step into somebody else's brain. And I just thought that is exactly what it is. And when you were talking a full hand about going in depth and the history behind why they did something, or a fear behind the anger, all those things that you get from reading. And you mentioned a book last episode about the poet X, and I was like, Oh, I haven't read that. And I read it this week and I thought, wow, I felt so in that head of that teenager. And I was like, it just felt so deeply personal to be within there.

SPEAKER_00 15:01

I feel like sometimes you feel even more emotionally and intimately connected with a character, with a narrative, than you often you do with your very close friends or family members. And I think this is the power of books, and they're like the ultimate acts of transparency. We've got the characters naming their feelings, you can see them wrestling with them, we can see them misunderstanding them often, but at the same time, we're being educated quite literally. We're learning the language, we're learning the vocabulary, we're learning how to read other people. And that's the wonderful space that books offer, this rehearsal space to experience and immerse ourselves in acts of apologies and understanding forgiveness and offering forgiveness and setting boundaries and respecting other people's boundaries and seeing vulnerability showcased and understanding how to repair after we've been exposed to conflict. So these are amazing experiences that the brain often remembers and recalls and often looks to for guidance sometimes, because I think I also mentioned in my book, Bibliotherapy, The Healing Power Reading, that when we are reading a story, sometimes our brain, when it's visualizing the story in its imagination, is experiencing it like it's really happening to us, even though it's happening to the character. This was illustrated by fMRI scans. The people under experiment were asked to sit in fMRI scans, and the same parts of the brain would highlight as though they were experiencing the story themselves, as the character was.

SPEAKER_01 16:39

Like we're in neurons firing off at each other.

SPEAKER_00 16:42

Yeah, exactly. This sort of virtual experience that is actually the brain is thinking it's real. So it's so powerful when we're reading books, the level of emotional education and emotional literacy that we're picking up. And this is why I think books have to survive the test of time. And this whole decline in reading, I think it's so important as parents and as carers that we really try and avoid the decline from happening by encouraging our children to read and using reading in all its forms, whether it's in an education setting, in a therapeutic setting, in a pleasure setting. The proof is in the pudding that the research often finds that regular fiction readers tend to score higher on measures of perspective taking, emotion recognition, and the tolerance as well, is the patience for it. And in terms of representation, Fred, do you have anything to add from a bibliotherapy or a play perspective?

SPEAKER_01 17:43

Yeah. So actually, when you were talking about representation, when people see others like themselves, it allows them to imagine possibilities and to look at those individuals as role models. So seeing people with shared identities in books, in media, in leadership positions or amongst peers not only confirms or affirms a sense of belonging, it also boosts their self-esteem, their self-confidence, their ability to self-grow, to build from there. I recall reading Alice Osman's Loveless. I think I read it just before I read your book, actually. So maybe you talk about it as well. So within that, there's the protagonist, Georgina Wall, who's an 18-year-old and she's navigating her first year at university while exploring and coming to the realizations about her own sexuality, particularly asexuality. It is a coming-of-age narrative. And stories like these are so crucial because they offer representation and help individuals avoid the feeling of isolation. So in the previous episode, I talked about making sure that we're validating and we're accepting all emotions that our children are presenting. And one of the reasons that this is so important is because it can help label those emotions and normalize them, but also is telling your child that they're not alone in this feeling. So all these things help the individual, and these books, these stories that talk about representation, help avoid those feelings of isolation. They have somebody that they can liken to, they can understand where they're coming from. And this contributes significantly to one's sense of belonging and supports our mental health. I've just finished reading Martin Hussein, Our Brains and Ourselves, in which he shares stories of his patients who experienced significant changes in their identity due to brain disorders. And he provides this amazing insightful discussions on the importance of identity belonging and how the brain contributes to this and how these shifts affect our relationship with others, but also our overall well-being and our lives.

SPEAKER_00 20:03

Wow, I need to read that one. It sounds fascinating, especially the impact of our identities changing. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 20:11

And he has that as a central theme going through and other things he brings in and weaves into it. It's a beautifully written book. I highly recommend it.

SPEAKER_00 20:21

Yes, and look, I 100% agree. In my book, Bibliotherapy, The Healing Power Reading, as you mentioned, I do prescribe Alice Osman's book, Loveless, to one of my clients who's navigating asexuality. And I got her to do some letter writing to the characters in a book because she felt a little isolated in her own real life, in her day-to-day life. And I felt that immersing herself in this world of diverse characters who all had their own very specialized sexuality, if I can call it that. And letter writing to protagonists encourages creativity whilst allowing the reader who'll be crafting the letters to feel safe in exposing their true feelings. They can really open up. And through writing and putting pen to paper, and that sort of physical connection is a real outlet to expressing all these emotions, these complex emotions that come about when we're really connecting with something, connecting with the narrative. And the reader can then cross this threshold into imaginative thinking to prepare a response to the character that feels natural, organic, and really establish this sense of relationship, sense of connection with the characters. And it also expands their own capacity to hold on to and shift between different perspectives by writing a letter to the protagonist and then writing a response to themselves as if from the protagonist, which I often use in bibliotherapy. It's a really useful tool because we're allowing the reader to externalize their own issues or thoughts and look back at themselves through the eyes of the protagonist, whilst also writing parts of themselves and embracing their own identity. So it's that self-validation, but also ability to see things from the perspective of others, which then offers new ways of looking at the situation or looking at the issue, leading to more creative thinking and a better approach to problem solving. And this, of course, also enhances their own self-awareness and self-compassion and healing. And secondly, I also added something that I call narrative therapy, which is really the process of rewriting your own story, reauthoring your own story by reframing it and with the purpose of ending on a positive note, finding some form of closure. And it's grateful when you're struggling to find closure on something because often we Have to script our own narratives and script our own story just for our own benefit and for our own peace of mind. So I would really recommend adding uh narrative therapy to any issues that you're struggling to find closure on or you're just struggling with. And this whole concept of narrative therapy are based on the principles developed by two authors and therapists themselves called Winston and Epstein. And the way they break down narrative therapy is, like I mentioned, firstly externalizing the problem. So narrative therapy encourages individuals to view their problems as external to themselves rather than who they inherently are. And by doing this, we're able to gain some perspective and distance on the issue itself. And so we don't end up, I guess, dissolving ourselves in these limited beliefs and ending up feeling very negative about ourselves. So that's the whole point about distancing ourselves and then being able to safely explore the issue. And then we, of course, deconstruct these dominant narratives. So narrative therapy often challenges these cultural narratives or societal expectations that may be contributing to these limiting beliefs about ourselves or about our problems. And by deconstructing these narratives, we're able to better understand how we've been influenced by a particular perspective. And then once we understand that, we can then construct a more positive or an alternative story that might serve us better and that might better align with our own values and hopes and where we're looking to get to. And then, of course, when we're constructing these new narratives, uh, we want them to be hopeful, empowering, reframing of negative experiences in a more positive light so that we can identify new ways of looking at ourselves and our lives, and hopefully shifting to a more optimal and optimistic worldview of ourselves. And lastly, narrative therapy is also very welcoming of multiple perspectives. There's no right or wrong answer, there's no one approach, there's whatever the approach, whatever we feel comfortable with or confident about, that's the way we can be who we want to be and embark on a path that serves us better so that we can live a more peaceful existence. And so if you're interested in these two creative bibliotherapy techniques, so letter writing to protagonists or narrative therapy, you can find more guidance of them in my book, Bibliotherapy, The Healing Power Reading, which has some exercises that you can do as well. There are also two chapters in the book that are focused on themes of diversity. So Savannah's experience with asexuality, which I've just spoken about, and then of course Janice's experience on navigating racism. So I definitely suggest picking up these two chapters if you're looking for some practical examples and client stories of how therapy is applied to this.

SPEAKER_01 26:17

Great. So when you were suggesting that you talked about these different narratives, these different protagonists from books to support these clients. I was thinking about when my children were really young, and there are so many books now out there for children and for teenagers to identify with and have that sense of belonging with. So one of the things I would really recommend is go with a very big bag and your library cards and some arm muscles, and let your child pick what books they are drawn to. It doesn't matter if it's a French book about fossils and you don't speak any French. That doesn't matter. What it does is it allows your child to be curious, it allows them to be open, it allows them to learn different cultures, it means that it doesn't feel closed off for them. And then literature becomes an engaging and welcoming place for them, that they know to take solace in. They know that they will find something there. And they'll find books that you didn't know existed. They will find them. But also, libraries are a fantastic place in terms of community as well. So it's a really good place for a child to see differences, to see different people coming for a whole host of reasons and to feel part of that community. They do so much. So please do take advantage of your libraries. So I want to talk a little bit here about a child that uses her curiosity and her narratives to support her. As in all of the episodes, this is a fictional character with some slight changes, but the therapeutic journey is real. So this time we're going to be talking about Kaya Clark from where the Cray Dubs sing come into play therapy. So Kaya Clark was six years old when her mother left her and her siblings. She lives in marshland in America. They have limited resources. Kaya does not go to school. She tried school, but it wasn't for her. So she is at home for all of the time. It's been about a year since Kaya's mum has left. And quite often Kaya doesn't know where her dad is. She has heard that her mum might have gone away and had a new family, that there might be a new baby in her mother's life. So when Kaya first starts plate therapy, she needs time to build up that trust. So there is a lot of observing. She'll spend a lot of time sitting and looking at all of the objects around the room. Then tentatively, she'll start to look at me to gauge who I am and what the expectations are of these sessions. After about week seven, she starts to be a little bit more curious about the toys in the room and the objects around. She picks up some dolls, some baby dolls in the corner. She then proceeds to quietly talk to the dolls in the corner. As I'm sitting with her, I am hearing occasional words that the baby needs to be cleaned. And I can see that for Kaya, it's really important that these babies have their needs met. She's making sure that they have their milk. She's making sure that they are clean. She's making sure that they are hugged and loved for. She then proceeds to put the baby down and say that they have become dirty and they need to go over to the other side of the room. She picks up the other baby and calls it beautiful and stays close with that baby. As the sessions go on, you can see more and more of Kaya exhibiting confusion and believing narratives and starts to indicate that only infants or the babies who are beautiful or clean should receive affection. Those are the only ones that she wants to hug. Anyone that she differs in appearance, she will call ugly and she will put far away from herself or from any other of the dolls. So they are instantly marginalized and put on the outside. Kaya starts to really exhibits confusion and self-blame. She believes she must be cute or good for the love of her mother who has left. She starts to tell me a story that her brother has shared about a vixen who, under extreme stress, abandons her offspring, but then goes on to have another family when the circumstances have improved. By this point in the playtherapy intervention, Kaya is starting to become more and more curious about the other materials in the room. So she's starting to draw, and through these drawings, I can see a whole world of the natural world for Kaya. So she's drawing pictures of spiders, insects, birds, shells, everything that is part of her world. And she's drawing these beautiful picture books based on this narrative. She's gathering these stories and these imageries to support her. And through these observations, she's demonstrating her curiosity, her deep reflection. And as she builds this story, she has the vixen and she's trying to understand why the vixen has left her cubs and why she would go on to have another family while Kaya is left. And she's able to have a growing sense of belonging with her environment and a deeper understanding of her situation.

SPEAKER_00 33:06

Wow, that's fascinating insight into the world of a child who feels this real absence. Thank you so much for sharing that. And I had a couple of thoughts as I was hearing that story from a bibliotherapy perspective. And the child just trying to organize their thoughts or gain some understanding of this unbearable absence. And she's probably got some questions in her head: why me? What was wrong with me? How did I become the one who is chosen? She may not be verbalizing these thoughts, but certainly there's a sense of it. She's not going to say I was terrified or I was unlovable, but maybe there's a sense of only the beautiful babies get picked up. And so you can see this in that initiation phase where K is nurturing, Clay is telling her something crucial that even though she's been left, she still has this capacity to love and to care. And that I've felt so touching and moving in your story as you were talking about it. So essentially, I feel that she's practicing or rehearsing some form of belonging. Is there a room for me here? I'm creating this room for these lovable dolls. Is there a room for me here? And then, of course, as we move into this resistance phase, the love is slowly changing to conditional love from unconditional. And so it's as though only the clean or pretty or good babies are gathered and belong, and the rest set aside. And so she's already developed this principle in her head that to survive that's what you need to be. So she's inventing this reason, and there's a sense of agency, I can fix this if I'm just a little bit prettier or less trouble, and she'll come back. And we can see how this sense of hope, but also this self-blame is coming together. And I found that story about the vixen extraordinary. Here is a sibling offering some hope that the fox hasn't left because the cup is defective, but it's because the world has become impossible. And obviously, Kaya's not sure, she's becoming a bit distrustful, and she's trying to make sense in her own head, and she's grappling with this dilemma of was it because I wasn't good enough, or was it that the situation was just really difficult for my mother? And every abandoned child is now grappling with these emotions, as orphans, for example, can do as well. And I always think about the poor little orphan in a role child story who is often faced with these abandonment issues. But we see these emotions play up and these themes play up many a times in children's literature about being abandoned. But we can see that as Kaya's creating this picture book, there's something that's shifting in her. She's borrowing these stories from the natural world and essentially becoming a bit of a storyteller to I guess give metaphor and give meaning to her loss, that she can sit with her loss and create community and continuity through the birds and through the landscape and the marshlands and create a sense of belonging, even if she didn't quite get this from her mother.

SPEAKER_01 36:41

She uses, like you were saying, she gets that sense of belonging from the landscape. They become like her family. They're not only her family, she's able to use those narratives, like you said, in order to make sense of her life. And then she can see that she belongs within that. She's part of the natural world. That makes sense to her that she's part like that.

SPEAKER_00 37:06

And I do hope that this can give comfort to other children, this story that you've just shared, Friar. So I really appreciate you sharing it.

SPEAKER_01 37:14

And as we were talking about, Kaya's story shows a person's culture, her relationship with nature, and her story is fundamental to her self-awareness, her identity, her therapeutic growth. And we all have these things that help us to identify, help us to grow. And part of all of our journeys is finding those things that resonate with us.

SPEAKER_00 37:46

So creating stories and narratives and characters in our own head really help a child reauthor their own story and they can experiment in their own writing and creation, they can test alliances, they can borrow each other's symbols, they can slowly build this thesis of a shared peer culture. So, in a sense, from a quarter in a world, it really does create a place of belonging and a sense of belonging for a child. In essence, just echoing what you said, Freya, it's fundamental to how community is made.

SPEAKER_01 38:22

The play prompt I'm going to suggest for this episode is following their lead, being curious in the play. Try avoid labeling, let them decide. They're going to use toys to represent different roles, different characters for whatever they need in that moment. So it may be that they need to play out being a buzzy bee when they're three, and then they have to play out going to school when they're five, or they may be playing out how to make slime on a video. And they want you to like and subscribe at the end when they're 11. Really looking at the toys available and thinking about what those toys are doing in terms of gender stereotyping. If you can try and make sure to have a real range within your toy box, that's so great in terms of what your child is going to be seeing and being able to explore. For this episode, I have some book recommendations for adults. I would really recommend Rasmus Munikan, My Grandmother's Hands, one of my absolute go-to books. So good. It looks at racial trauma, it provides practical guidance. It's just a beautiful read, a theory and social criticism. It's an all-in-one, and it can help someone, trauma to be seen and a family through that history. And it gives the beginnings of a pathway to healing. But I also use practical guidance part of it as standalone work. In terms of looking at things like understanding gender and sexual development, it's invaluable to provide reassurance and normalizing this experience. I really recommend the Walker book series, authored by Robbie E. Harris, which includes titles such as Let's Talk About Where Babies Come From. These books cover a whole range of topics in terms of sexual health, bodies, families, puberty, the overall sexual development in an open and accessible manner. But if you would wanted to go into more specifics, I was reading Elliot Page's memoirs, Page Boy, and this book really felt like someone sitting down and talking to me. It was explaining their world and a big part of his journey with their gender and sexuality. And so sorting these works opens many doors in terms of your child's development, but also can help them to feel less isolated, like Mitchell was explaining with the story of using Loveless with her clients. And it also helps build their empathy, and that greatly benefits their life and their place within the wider world. For children, in terms of books, the list is so long. So I am actually going to give you where to find these books. So individuals that I trust, such as Vigil. So I would go to Vigil and ask and look on her website. But also Vigil recommended to me the Oregon Post Adoption Resource Centre online, which is amazing. It's so detailed.

SPEAKER_00 41:36

Um recommendations.

SPEAKER_01 41:39

Oh, it's just amazing. So thank you very much for that. And I would also go to places like We Need Diverse Books. Instagram has my story book library, and I have some information as well on my website. Thanks, Freya.

SPEAKER_00 41:55

Those are some great terms. But no, I concur that Rathman Mecken's book to Freya on navigating racialized trauma is a great book to read. And also for some similar book recommendations from a cultural and diversity perspective, do check out all the free reading lists on my website, www.foottherapy.io. There's a whole A to Z reading list. I'll put a link to this in the show notes so that you can check this out as well, alongside all the other very helpful resources that Freya suggested. Like we mentioned, there's such a long list of really wonderful books out there. So that's definitely one place where you're going to find belonging in all these stories. Do check them out when you get a moment for your child or for yourself. I do hope that parents find them helpful and do share them with your children as well. I'd just like to end by saying that play and reading create new worlds for us, offering a safe haven to help us grow and make sense of the world, even when life feels overwhelming. So I hope you enjoyed this episode of Pages and Play. As always, all links mentioned here are in the show notes. And if you enjoyed this episode, please do share it with your friends and family. It really helps spread the word. And don't forget to subscribe to. If you'd like to listen to previous episodes, you can also do just search for the podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. Thank you so much. And until next time, happy playing and happy reading.