Synopses & Reviews
Drawing on clinical insights from family systems thinking, psychodynamic play therapy, and cognitive-behavioral perspectives, this significant new work presents an innovative approach to therapeutic work with young children and their families. The author brings a thoroughly integrative orientation to bear in her understanding of how parents and children get entangled in patterns that cause grief to both generations. Her approach--"child-in-family" therapy--although steeped in the systems outlook, offers a thorough consideration of the unique characteristics of the child in trouble and the specific developmental obstacles that he or she faces. This strategy enhances family therapy at times when a child's difficulties begin to take on a life of their own, and also brings the power of family systems thinking to individual efforts to help young children in trouble.
Beginning with an introduction to the author's methods, the first chapter sets forth a rationale for combining the most valuable aspects of systems therapy with individual psychotherapy approaches. With much clinical detail, the book first explains how to effectively conduct meetings with parents alone, emphasizing ways to draw out parents' concerns about their children and distinguish distortions and projections from true observations. The author also demonstrates the use of a valuable element from family therapy--a positive orientation that helps parents notice their children's strengths. In addition to offering specific guidance on how to conduct family sessions with very young children, Ellen Wachtel gives family therapists the tools they need to begin including individual sessions with children as part and parcel of family therapy. She also shares with readers numerous concrete suggestions on how to interact with young children in ways that foster emotional expressiveness.
In step-by-step detail, this book demonstrates how therapists can organize and evaluate the information gleaned through the different sessions so that the child is neither pathologized nor too readily pronounced "fine." Active interventions based on psychodynamic formulations are utilized to address such individual issues as the child's oversensitivity to criticism, low self-esteem, poor relationships with peers, and conflicts around aggression. Interventions based on behavioral formulations are also described in detail. In the final chapter, the author presents five case studies that clearly illustrate the clinical use of the concepts and applications described. She shows how interventions at the family system level must be complemented by interventions that focus on the child. These include not only the use of play and other projective methods for bringing to light the child's issues, but also active efforts to work with the child on changing his or her behavior.
Clinically sophisticated, humane, comprehensive, and powerfully integrative, this volume represents a major leap forward in our ability to help troubled children and their families. Presenting a ground-breaking new approach that combines the best elements from family systems thinking and individual therapy, the book is an invaluable resource for all professionals.
Review
"
Treating Troubled Children and Their Families is a staple text for the child therapy and family therapy courses I teach in our clinical psychology PhD program. I believe it is far and away the most valuable reading that students do in these courses. Students regularly comment on how 'right' it feels to view their clinical work through Dr. Wachtel's integrative lens. They also appreciate the easy balance between theoretical perspectives and very detailed descriptions of what to do in a session. Students have even remarked that they save Dr. Wachtel's chapters for last, as a reward for finishing all of their other reading for the week! Among the most essential qualities of Dr. Wachtels work are her respect and appreciation for the strengths of each parent and child, which truly make this book a gift for each new generation of clinicians working with families across all sociocultural contexts."--Karla Klein Murdock, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts-Boston
"Treating Troubled Children and Their Families is required reading for my master's-level students. Wachtel articulates psychodynamic developmental principles in a way that is invaluable to burgeoning clinicians who are striving to be relationship specialists. Students appreciate how the text helps them understand children's developmental needs and how to relate to them in a family context, and the creative ideas it provides for intervening in family therapy."--Linda Stone Fish, PhD, Department of Marriage and Family Therapy, Syracuse University
"A ground-breaking work! Wachtel describes an integrated model of therapy which combines elements of systemic, psychodynamic, play, and cognitive behavioral approaches. The author's "child in family therapy" combines both individual and interpersonal perspectives. Both beginning and experienced family therapists will find many practical suggestions for engaging young children in the therapeutic process. Highly recommended." --Charles E. Schaefer, Ph.D., Founder of the Play Therapy Training Institute, New Jersey, author of The Therapeutic Powers of Play
"Undaunted by the challenge of integrating four different traditions--cognitive, behavioral, psychodynamic, and systems therapies--Ellen Wachtel uses her impressive intellect and inexhaustible imagination to bring the reader the best of theory and practice on behalf of troubled children and their families. A must' for all therapists working with children." --Marcia Sheinberg, M.S.W., Director of Training, Ackerman Institute for Family Therapy
"This is a big book in every sense of the word. To call it an integrative model is to minimize its impact. Therapists who define themselves as systems or family therapists, as well as those who practice a psychodynamic model of child therapy, will find it equally important. Dr. Wachtel tells us that the 'relative balance of systemic psychodynamic behavioral and cognitive interventions varies greatly from case to case. Therapists need to pick and choose, borrow and reshape from all those who have something to offer distressed and troubled children.' I say amen to that. Dr. Wachtel has an encyclopedic knowledge of her field. She teaches while she informs. Best of all she holds your interest every page of the process. This may be the one book you will refer to over and over again. To quote Ms. Wachtel again, 'Most important of all is that therapists learn to think about children's difficulties from a wide variety of perspectives and that they have in their repertoire a wide range of interventions.' This book will help us all in that direction." --Olga Silverstein, M.S.W., and author of The Courage to Raise Good Men
"....Extremely well-written....A must for professionals at all levels of clinical experience who work with children and their families." --Stephen M. Gavazzi, Ohio State University in Journal of Family Psychotherapy
Review
"Extremely well-written....A must for professionals at all levels of clinical experience who work with children and their families."--Journal of Family Psychotherapy
Review
"[A] masterly contribution in integration, with provocative and groundbreaking implications for contemporary family therapy."--AFTA Newsletter
Synopsis
Drawing on clinical insights from family systems thinking, psychodynamic play therapy, and cognitive-behavioral approaches, the author examines how parents and children get entangled in patterns that cause grief to both generations. Her "child-in-family" therapy approach is steeped in the systems perspective, yet offers a consideration of the unique characteristics of the child in trouble and the specific developmental obstacles he or she faces.
Synopsis
Integrating systemic, psychodynamic, and cognitive-behavioral perspectives, this acclaimed book presents an innovative framework for therapeutic work. Ellen Wachtel shows how parents and children all too often get entangled in patterns that cause grief to both generations, and demonstrates how to help bring about change with a combination of family-focused and child-focused interventions. Vivid case examples illustrate creative ways to engage young children in family sessions and conduct complementary sessions with children and parents alone, using a variety of strengths-based, developmentally informed strategies. The paperback edition features a new preface in which the author reflects on the continuing evolution of her approach.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 287-296) and index.
About the Author
Ellen F. Wachtel, JD, PhD, is a graduate of Harvard Law School and New York University's doctoral program in Clinical Psychology. She has taught and supervised individual and family therapy in the doctoral programs at New York University and the City University of New York, as well as at Roosevelt Hospital and the Ackerman Institute for Family Therapy. Dr. Wachtel gives workshops both in the United States and abroad on integrative approaches to working with couples, families with young children, and adults in individual therapy settings. Coauthor (with Paul L. Wachtel) of
Family Dynamics in Individual Psychotherapy, she is also in private practice in New York City.
Table of Contents
1. The Child as an Individual: An Introduction to Child-in-Family Therapy
2. Meeting with Parents Alone: Understanding Their Concerns
3. Getting the Most Out of Family Meetings
4. Knowing the Child in Depth: A Clinical Guide to Effective Individual Sessions
5. Anxiety, Adaptational Styles, and Defense Mechanims
6. Essential Psychodynamic Concepts
7. Interventions Based on Psychodynamic Formulations
8. Interventions Based on Behavioral Formulations
9. Pulling It All Together: Five Illustrative Case Studies