Change Processes in Child Psychotherapy Revitalizing Treatment and Research [Hardcover]

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.

Shirk and Russell provide a much needed addition to the too often neglected interface between clinical practice and empirical research. These authors eloquently argue that child clinicians and researchers in clinical and developmental psychology must share their respective expertise if child psychotherapy is to continue to evolve and survive as a viable form of treatment.Change Processes in Child Psychotherapydoes much to bridge the schism between research and practice and holds considerable promise for facilitating dialogue and the cross fertilization of ideas between those providing treatment and those invested in understanding developmental child psychopathology. This volume will be an important addition to striving to ameliorate the suffering of troubled children. --Dante Cicchetti, Ph.D.

The contributions of this volume are manifold. First, it includes an unparalleled, comprehensive review of the status of psychotherapy research with children. At the same time, while it presents a critical and sobering overview of research on child psychotherapy, it maintains a wide and optimistic perspective of the literature. The balanced, comprehensive reviewlCv