Severely Disturbed Youngsters and the Parental Alliance

Every professional who has worked with severely disturbed youth is familiar with the problems that arise in dealing with their parents. These problems, particularly those related to the feelings evoked in the therapist (or any professional responsible primarily for the child) toward the parent, are rarely discussed in the literature. Here is a much-needed book that shows how important it is to establish a therapeutic alliance with the parents of severely disturbed young people in order...
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Every professional who has worked with severely disturbed youth is familiar with the problems that arise in dealing with their parents. These problems, particularly those related to the feelings evoked in the therapist (or any professional responsible primarily for the child) toward the parent, are rarely discussed in the literature. Here is a much-needed book that shows how important it is to establish a therapeutic alliance with the parents of severely disturbed young people in order to improve the success of counseling with them. It also explores methods of how to ease the difficulties encountered in establishing such a relationship with the parents or guardians.

In Severely Disturbed Youngsters and the Parental Alliance, the insights of psychoanalysis are used to understand reactions to parents and to develop an empathic approach to them through a new theoretical framework. Although in the popular view, a psychoanalytic approach is considered to be opposed to parents, this volume is testimony to the unique contribution such an approach can make to the support of parents and, thereby, their children. A major and unique emphasis of Severely Disturbed Youngsters is placed on exploring the feelings, reactions, and sensitivities of the therapist that can interfere with this important aspect of treatment. The thrust of the book is to put the understanding of this interference in a theoretical context and to indicate ways of coping with the interference.

The book starts with the premise that the cooperation of the parents of severely disturbed youngsters is necessary in order for treatment to be effective, and that it is, therefore, necessary to develop a therapeutic alliance with parent as well as with child. The authors then use a psychoanalytic perspective to understand some of the difficulties that arise in the pursuit of this alliance. Two of the chapters address situations that have particular pitfalls--parent loss and parental abuse. A third sketches the dynamics and needs of the typical severely disturbed child. A fourth presents a combination of clinical and theoretical perspectives, and the final chapter explores aspects of the alliance of a school and its staff with the parents of disturbed youth.

All persons who work with severely disturbed children--therapists of all disciplines, teachers, child care workers, and administrators of any children's agency--and need to have some contact with their parents, even minimal contact, will find this book to be a clearly written guide to establishing excellent therapeutic relationships with both parents and disturbed children.