"Dear God, please let us get there safely, Ms. Lytle recalled praying aloud."
"Is the storm coming back?"
"It's a tornado, Mommy, Fitz said. And I got it in my hand. And it's OK."
Deana Lytle fled a severe storm with her 3-year-old son Fitz toward her parents' house in Swannanoa, N.C., praying aloud for safety. They reached safety, but Fitz developed post-traumatic stress symptoms including loss of appetite, uncontrollable crying during downpours, frequent bedwetting and repeated questions about whether the storm would return. Ms. Lytle enrolled Fitz in a therapeutic playgroup at the Verner Center for Resilience in Asheville, where he processed the experience through drawing and play, repeatedly creating circular tornado scribbles. Through therapy he regained a sense of control, began to improve, and has started to create rainbows again.
Read at www.nytimes.com
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