Barb Dorrington

Her book, The Trauma Monster: A Healing Journey Through the Untold Cold Case Stories of One Ontario Community, grew from both a personal connection to one of the cases and years of research into unsolved crimes in Southwestern Ontario. Through interviews with survivors, families, witnesses, and community members, she explores not only what happened, but what happens to a community when answers never come.

Barb believes that storytelling can break silence, preserve memory, and create a path toward healing.

Dorrington has long been keenly interested in the connection between art therapy and trauma. She has published chapters in two art therapy books called the Hand in Hand series. Her journals, from seven trips to Louisiana and Mississippi after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, have been featured in the Trauma and Loss: Research and Interventions journals of the National Institute for Trauma and Loss in Children. Dorrington credits her interest in trauma work with large-scale disasters as ignited by her numerous trips south.

 A social work background, interlaced with trauma training and an art therapy background, afforded Dorrington the opportunity to lend her expertise to populations who would normally receive shelter and financial support but not necessarily debriefing support. Dorrington also wrote a manual called Breathe! Rock! Draw! that supports trauma-informed classrooms and utilizes neuroscience discoveries.