The Terrors of the Night: Creative Psychotherapeutic Approach in a Case of a Child with Parasomnia.

Night terrors are phenomena that emerge in the phase of deep sleep in children and that are extremely disturbing for the parents. While research suggests that they tend to resolve by middle childhood, in children where these persist and cause dysfunction, behavioral interventions have proved to be useful. The paper presents the case report of an 8-year-old boy, who presented with night terrors and a decline in academic performance. In therapy along with using behavioral techniques and parent management strategies, creative modalities including art-work and play were employed. The child though vocal could not describe vocally the nighttime events or his understanding of possible stresses. With the use of projective techniques in assessment and semi-structured techniques in therapy, several difficult and possibly traumatic life events were understood and resolved with the child. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]