Change Processes in Child Psychotherapy

Book excerpt: This groundbreaking work advances a developmental perspective on both the basic processes of therapeutic change and the classification of childhood problems, offering a novel approach to the search for effective treatments for children. Generating a new flow of ideas between clinical practice and empirical research, the volume revitalizes basic modalities such as psychodynamic, play and cognitive therapies by identifying the core ingredients that enhance and retard the processes of change. The authors also demonstrate the limitations of utilizing diagnostic labels as the basis for assessing treatment efficacy, arguing instead for an integrative approach that links methods of intervention with a case-relevant analysis of the child's emotional, interpersonal and cognitive development. This book will appeal to clinical and school psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, and other clinicians working with children, as well as researchers in the field. It also serves as a text in graduate-level courses on child treatment and child psychopathology.