Early Encounters with Children and Adolescents is the first training guide to use the works of beginning therapists as its focus. Far too often, therapists in training are given the "classics" to read-case histories by the masters in the field, which can sometimes leave beginning therapists intimidated or even in despair as to whether they can ever reach that level of proficiency. This book is the first to remediate that situation by providing beginners with role models they can more easily internalize through realistic case histories that reveal the ins and outs of starting in a craft that is never fully mastered. Not only are the cases themselves fascinating, but the therapists also refer to the processes they struggled with while treating these patients. Readers will thus have a striking new counterweight to the classics they will still want to read as they progress in the field. Eight beginning clinicians discuss aspects of their clinical process, including: issues of transference and countertransference; the role of supervision; doing parent consultations, especially when one is not yet a parent; cultural/racial/socioeconomic differences between patient and therapist; and the vulnerability of not understanding for long moments in treatment. Psychodynamic beginners in every discipline will find these case histories compelling, heartfelt and inspiring.

Starting Treatment With Children and Adolescents provides therapists with a time-tested framework for treatment and a moment-by-moment guide to the first few sessions with a new patient. In twelve remarkable case studies, verbatim transcripts of individual play-therapy sessions are brought to life through running commentary on techniques and theory and a fine-grained analysis of what worked, what didn t, and what else the clinician could have done to make the session as productive as possible.
Clinicians will come away from the book with a unique window into how other therapists actually work as well as new tools for engaging children and adolescents in process-oriented treatment. They ll also be guided through an exploration of common questions such as How else could I have handled that situation? What other paths could I have tried? Where might those other paths have led? What treatment strategies are most advantageous to my patients growth and to my own?

Starting Treatment With Children and Adolescents provides therapists with a time-tested framework for treatment and a moment-by-moment guide to the first few sessions with a new patient. In twelve remarkable case studies, verbatim transcripts of individual play-therapy sessions are brought to life through running commentary on techniques and theory and a fine-grained analysis of what worked, what didn t, and what else the clinician could have done to make the session as productive as possible.
Clinicians will come away from the book with a unique window into how other therapists actually work as well as new tools for engaging children and adolescents in process-oriented treatment. They ll also be guided through an exploration of common questions such as How else could I have handled that situation? What other paths could I have tried? Where might those other paths have led? What treatment strategies are most advantageous to my patients growth and to my own?

Early Encounters with Children and Adolescents is the first training guide to use the works of beginning therapists as its focus. Far too often, therapists in training are given the "classics" to read-case histories by the masters in the field, which can sometimes leave beginning therapists intimidated or even in despair as to whether they can ever reach that level of proficiency. This book is the first to remediate that situation by providing beginners with role models they can more easily internalize through realistic case histories that reveal the ins and outs of starting in a craft that is never fully mastered. Not only are the cases themselves fascinating, but the therapists also refer to the processes they struggled with while treating these patients. Readers will thus have a striking new counterweight to the classics they will still want to read as they progress in the field. Eight beginning clinicians discuss aspects of their clinical process, including: issues of transference and countertransference; the role of supervision; doing parent consultations, especially when one is not yet a parent; cultural/racial/socioeconomic differences between patient and therapist; and the vulnerability of not understanding for long moments in treatment. Psychodynamic beginners in every discipline will find these case histories compelling, heartfelt and inspiring.

The past forty years have revealed a myriad of theoretical advances to Freud s original conceptions of the personality. It has also witnessed the continued use of projective methods as a vital means of understanding the what and the how of mental health and psychopathology. Understanding Personality Through Projective Testing provides the reader with a comprehensive framework for linking these revitalized key domains of personality functioning to the quality of responses to projective testing in both children and adults. Six core aspects of personality: two facets of object relations (moving towards and away from self and others); the quality of defense mechanisms; the nature of affect maturity; the integrity of autonomous ego functioning and the capacity for playfulness are defined, articulated, and linked to one another in a reciprocal manner. Four commonly used projective testing methods: the Rorschach Inkblot Method (RIM); the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), the Sentence Completion Test (SCT), and the Animal Preference Test (APT) are then described in detail. Each of these projective methods is in turn presented as dynamically-based tools to indicate the relative performance of the patient across the six core personality domains. Clinical case examples provide both the beginning and more seasoned clinician with a comprehensive psychodynamic paradigm with which to view each of the testing methods, as well as enhanced methods with which to use each of the tests more subtly and hence with greater clinical acumen. A comprehensive battery of projective testing is then assessed through the protocol of a single adult patient, allowing the reader to integrate the value of each of the individual projective methods into a comprehensive assessment of the whole person. Readers will find the book a vital complement to both standard reference works on projective methods as well as books that describe personality along developmental and psychodynamic lines."

In Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Uncertainty: Struggling with a Shadow of a Doubt, Moshe Marcus and Steven Tuber examine the structural and intrapsychic features of the self as presented within OCD compulsive doubting, and more broadly, within OCD compulsions. Marcus and Tuber further elucidate central object-relational paradigms within OCD doubting and suggest a broader framework that can be used to consider the interplay between both the cognitive as well as the affective components required to make judgments.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Uncertainty: Struggling with a Shadow of a Doubt examines the structural and intrapsychic features of the self as it presents within OCD compulsive doubting, and more broadly within OCD compulsion. Specifically, it is situated within the theoretical framework of psychodynamic theory and object-relations theory and aims to elucidate central object-relational paradigms within OCD doubting. Moshe Marcus and Stephen Tuber suggest a broader framework through which to consider the interplay between both the cognitive as well as affective components required to make judgments.

Donald Winnicott, the first pediatrician to become a child psychoanalyst, was the most influential and important child therapist in the field of child clinical psychiatry and psychology. Having consulted with over 30,000 mothers and children as part of his work in London city hospitals over 40 years, he had an almost magical capacity to engage with children and to soothe and guide parents through their most anxiety-ridden times. His optimistic notions of the "good enough" mother has calmed generations of parents; his depiction of security blankets ("transitional objects") found full flower in the Charlie Brown character Linus; his stressing of the importance of the capacity to play as the gold standard of mental health had an enormous impact on preschool and kindergarten education and his focus on the insidious impact of a lack of authenticity or "false self" has led to countless papers on the malevolent impact of narcissism at both the individual and societal levels. Attachment, Play and Authenticity: Winnicott in a Clinical Context, 2nd edition, attempts to take these contributions and place them directly in the consulting room. Actual child-therapist vignettes are paired with each chapter's theoretical contributions. The reader is thus first transported to Winnicott's powerfully alive depictions of what happens in healthy and pathological mother-child interaction and then brought to see how these depictions manifest themselves in child therapy. No other work on Winnicott has applied this focus to the integration of theory and practice.

Parenting: Contemporary Clinical Perspectives offers fresh insights into treating parents and their children that highlight the evolving role of parents throughout the lifespan and amidst contemporary social pressure and change. By drawing from their own personal experiences as well as those from clinical practice, distinguished clinicians and analysts examine each phase of parenting through a variety of lenses to tackle our biggest parenting questions. While we must be highly present for our children to help them develop a sense of self-worth, we must simultaneously step back if we want them to develop a sense of autonomy and individuality. As our role as parent changes, how can we maintain a sense of grace, humor, and perspective? How can our work in practice inform and enrich our parenting, and vice versa? Thoughtful and engaging, this volume is a valuable resource for family therapists and clinicians, especially those who are parents themselves.

The past forty years have revealed a myriad of theoretical advances to Freud's original conceptions of the personality. It has also witnessed the continued use of projective methods as a vital means of understanding the what and the how of mental health and psychopathology. Understanding Personality Through Projective Testing provides the reader with a comprehensive framework for linking these revitalized key domains of personality functioning to the quality of responses to projective testing in both children and adults. Six core aspects of personality: two facets of object relations (moving towards and away from self and others); the quality of defense mechanisms; the nature of affect maturity; the integrity of autonomous ego functioning and the capacity for playfulness are defined, articulated, and linked to one another in a reciprocal manner. Four commonly used projective testing methods: the Rorschach Inkblot Method (RIM); the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), the Sentence Completion Test (SCT), and the Animal Preference Test (APT) are then described in detail. Each of these projective methods is in turn presented as dynamically-based tools to indicate the relative performance of the patient across the six core personality domains. Clinical case examples provide both the beginning and more seasoned clinician with a comprehensive psychodynamic paradigm with which to view each of the testing methods, as well as enhanced methods with which to use each of the tests more subtly and hence with greater clinical acumen. A comprehensive battery of projective testing is then assessed through the protocol of a single adult patient, allowing the reader to integrate the value of each of the individual projective methods into a comprehensive assessment of the whole person. Readers will find the book a vital complement to both standard reference works on projective methods as well as books that describe personality along developmental and psychodynamic lines.