101 Healing Stories for Kids and Teens

STORY 71

OVERCOMING ADVERSITY: A KID STORY

Therapeutic Characteristics

Problems Addressed

■ Loss

■ Sadness

■ Global thinking

■ Negative thinking

■ Pessimism

■ Introspection

■ Hopelessness

Resources Developed

■ Thinking specifically

■ Thinking positively

■ Being optimistic

■ Looking outward

■ Maintaining hopefulness

■ Becoming action-oriented

Outcomes Offered

■ Knowing it isn’t the event but the way we handle the event
■ Acknowledging that thoughts can determine feelings
■ Discovering that attitude can determine outcome
■ Possessing grief management skills
■ Possessing trauma management skills
Dolly and Debbie were dinosaurs. In fact, they were two very curious young dinosaurs who
liked to invent new games and explore new places. They lived with a family of dinosaurs in a lush
valley where there were fresh streams and plenty of food. Life was good.
One day Dolly and Debbie were exploring a cave in the hills that surrounded their valley. They
crashed deeper and deeper into the cave, each encouraging the other, curious to see how far they
could explore—when suddenly from outside there was a big bang. Dolly and Debbie ran toward the
entrance of the cave to find that their lush valley and family of dinosaurs had disappeared. Of course,
they didn’t know what had happened, and it was going to be millions of years before scientists would
discover that a meteorite had hit their valley and wiped out everything except for Dolly and Debbie,
who had been hidden deep inside the cave.
At first, they sat in the entrance to the cave and looked out over the valley, totally stunned. They
found it hard to believe. Then sadness settled on them as they became aware of their loss.
Looking across the blackened valley, Dolly was the first to speak. “This is terrible!” she said. “It

174 Healing Stories, Teaching Stories