Dr. Mary C. McCluskey, psychotherapist, and author revitalizes Dr. Alfred Adler, the “Pioneer in the Prevention of Mental Health Disorders” and Dr. Pierre Janet “Father of Trauma Treatment Theory” using a time-traveling hot air balloon to create a new genre of children’s books. This book series integrates history, psychology, and art, and its activities are designed to stimulate and enhance the integration of the creative, emotional right brain and the practical, analytical left brain. Scientists have found integration of both sides of the brain is optimal for resilience and mental health. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=mary+c.+mccluskey&crid=18X3K3C3OYT2K&sprefix=%2Caps%2C90&ref=nb_sb_ss_recent_1_0_recent
In her most recent book, now available for presale on amazon.com, Bubbles, Balloons and Birds: Learning to Thrive-Helpings Kids Cope With Adversity (BBB) creatively shows how an eleven-year-old survivor of the Franco-Prussian War grew up to become one of the most important psychologists of all time! The book’s foreword was written by Mariel Hemingway, actress, author, and mental health advocate. Her grandfather Ernest Hemingway, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, was renowned for his writings about war. Now, Mariel speaks candidly about the difficulties of growing up in a famous family who struggled with mental illness and addiction. She shares how she coped as a child using both nature and mindfulness. The narrative of the children’s story that follows includes these themes and shows how they can be used as tools for coping with adversity. Kirkus says BBB is “A conversation starter for social-emotional learning……space provided encourages readers to take part in the conversation.” – Kirkus Reviews.
Bubbles, Balloons and Birds was translated into Ukrainian and distributed to Ukrainian families in Eastern Europe by Community Organization Relief Effort (CORE), the global humanitarian organization co-founded by Sean Penn and Ann Lee. In addition, it was distributed by the Siemacha Association in Krakow, Poland. McCluskey, who is also one of the book’s illustrators (her mom and daughter are the other illustrators of her book series) recently facilitated an art workshop and book signing in Krakow, Poland with the children who had read her book. The children whose ages ranged from 8 to 16 worked on various art activities while listening to Chopin’s piano music including mask-making. The participants spontaneously expressed using Google Translate the emotional meaning behind their masks. One child said, “My mask shows that sometimes we are happy and sometimes we are sad and so lost.” One child translated (BBB) from Ukrainian into Polish for her Polish friends. She shared that reading the book about a child war survivor made her feel understood, and less alone. Some of the children’s artwork will appear in McCluskey’s third book “A Mouse Named Pigment in Chopin’s Piano: The Healing Power of Color and Sound.”
Dr. McCluskey, a parent herself, knows the instinct to shield kids from scary things, but in the current climate of information overload, she urges parents to be the first to talk to their kids about overwhelming things. This book series is designed to help facilitate these types of conversations and is meant to be read by parents/caregivers and children and used as a platform for family discussions about complex and often anxiety-producing topics. They are meant to enhance family bonds and child creativity, resilience, and self-confidence. The books are interactive, and prompts are designed to encourage readers to express themselves either with words, drawings, color expression, songs, poems, and/or bilateral tapping (the child chooses).
Dr. McCluskey specializes in trauma treatment and is certified in Attachment-Focused EMDR and trauma-informed art therapy and is in training to be a certified sound healer. She teaches social work at New York University and owns a group therapy practice, The Empowerment Opportunity LCSW PLLC https://theempowermentopportunity.com/ treating children, adolescents, and adults. She was recently interviewed on Hemingway’s podcast, Out Comes the Sun. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwLCRo_Mx4I
