Psychology/Professionals

Mom and teen

Adolescent Girls in Crisis

Martha B. Straus, 2007

Adolescent girls face more hurdles to healthy, safe development than ever before, with greater-than-ever risks. Though they need us know more than ever, taking on the responsibility of helping them is unarguably challenging and frightening. However, as reflected in Straus’s final chapter, “Ten Reasons for Hope,” we are in the midst of important changes in how we understand girls, adolescence, the life course, and the impact of culture. Highly practical and compassionate, Adolescent Girls in Crisis guides us in this understanding, showing us how to make effective, lasting changes in lives of our teenage girls.

Adoption and the Family System

Miriam Reitz and Kenneth Watson, 1992

Adoption is a profound experience that touches upon universal themes of abandonment, identity, sexuality, parenthood, and the sense of belonging. The authors utilize family systems theory to construct a practical treatment approach for working with families on the myriad issues and interrelationships that surround adoption.

Adoption Resources for Mental Health Professionals

Pamela Grabe (ed), 1990

This text is designed to support mental health professionals who work with a specific group of children: those who have lived in foster care, those who have moved from one substitute home to another, and those who must survive repeated loss of contact with people they trust and love.

Adoption Wisdom: A Guide to the Issues and Feelings of Adoption

Marlou Russell, 2000 

The purpose of this book is three-fold: to prepare those who are considering adoption; to validate the feelings of adoptive parents, birth parents, and adoptees; and to educate people about the lifelong impact of adoption. By examining the many issues involved in adoption, this book provides the opportunity for the reader to gain a fuller appreciation of the complexities involved in the adoption experience.

Beneath the Mask: Understanding Adopted Teens

Debbie Riley, with John Meeks, 2006

Therapy solutions for adopted kids aren’t just black and white. Working with adopted adolescents is complex. The key to successful therapy and healthy development is to help the adolescent discover and accept the person within. Therapists and clinicians will discover: a broad knowledge base on adoption, a step-by-step assessment process, clinical intervention strategies, a wealth of case histories, treatment resources and therapy tools, and writing and art therapy samples; Parents will discover the six most common adoption stuck-spots, the complexities of adoption, the adopted teens quest for identity, and how therapy may help the adoptive family learn and grow together.

Broken Hearts, Wounded Minds: The Psychological Functioning of Severely Traumatized and Behavior Problem Children

Elizabeth M. Randolph, 2001

Broken Hearts, Wounded Minds provides an exciting, new and comprehensive look at attachment disorder, including the latest research findings on the psychological functioning of severely traumatized children and the effectiveness of attachment therapy. This book is aimed primarily at professionals in this field, but also provides an invaluable resource for any parents dealing with their own children’s issues surrounding attachment disorder.

The Challenge of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome: Overcoming Secondary Disabilities

Ann Streissguth and Jonathan Kanter, 1997

This book examines 25 years of research on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) and Fetal Alcohol Effect (FAE). It summarizes recent findings and recommendations from twenty-two experts in the fields of human services, education, and criminal justice. The Challenge of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome acknowledges the diverse and multifaceted needs of people with FAS/FAE across their lifespan. It is a valuable resource for parents and professionals.

Clinical and Practice Issues in Adoption: Bridging the Gap Between Adoptees Placed as Infants and as Older Children

Victor Groza and Karen F. Rosenberg, 1998

Experts representing practitioners, researchers, advocates, and triad members compare adoptees placed as infants and adoptees placed as older children. The book promotes better integration of theory, practice, policy, and research in working with clients who are members of the adoption triad. The separate practice areas are bridged, pointing out the significant overlap between the two populations and the similar interventions that can be used when working with adoptees regardless of their age at placement.

Creating Capacity for Attachment: Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy in the Treatment of Trauma-Attachment Disorders

Arthur Becker-Weidman and Deborah Shell, 2005

A comprehensive book about dyadic developmental psychotherapy. A gentle, holistic, therapeutic approach designed to resolve trauma in children who have experienced abuse, neglect, loss, or other extreme challenges to primary relationships. Respected professionals offer practical strategies for treating and parenting children with trauma and attachment disorders.

A General Theory of Love

Thomas Lewis, Fari Amini and Richard Lannon, 2000 

A General Theory of Love explores the psychobiology of love. The book describes the nature of three fundamental neurophysiologic processes that create and govern love: limbic resonance, the wordless and nearly instantaneous emotional attunement that allows us to sense each other’s feeling states; limbic regulation, the modulation and control of our physiology by our relationships; and limbic revision, the manner in which relationships alter the very structure of our brains. Those, whom we love, as the book describes, change who we are, and who we can become.

Hearing the Internal Trauma: Working with Children and Adolescents Who Have Been Sexually Abused

Sandra Wieland, 1997

This book offers therapists an innovative clinical model for understanding what happens within a sexually abused child. Combining the latest research findings in child development, early attachment, sexual abuse, and trauma with extensive clinical experience, this book assists therapists in not only recognizing the signs of abuse but also developing effective therapeutic interventions.

No-Talk Therapy for Children and Adolescents

Martha Straus, 1999

Demonstrating an innovative approach to the treatment of young clients who won’t or can’t respond to conversation-based therapy, this book explores a special collaboration between no-talk kids and their therapists. Through empathy and respect, games, activities, and an emphasis on individual connection, competence, and creativity, no-talk therapy begins to provide these sullen, enraged and confused kids with the self-esteem, self confidence, and self-awareness to develop a voice of their own.

Nurturing Adoptions: Creating Resilience after Neglect and Trauma

Deborah Gray, 2007

This book provides best practices for professionals working with families adopting in a 21st-century world. Hear the success stories of breakthroughs and secure families through the voices of children and their families who have overcome the challenges today’s adoptive families face. Find practical, yet flexible ways to move children – from infants to early teens – into their new families. Learn the effects of neglect and trauma on brain and emotional development, and more importantly, how to recognize them. Discover home and school approaches that encourage children to flourish, even after trauma and neglect.

The Post-Adoption Blues: Overcoming the Unforeseen Challenges of Adoption

Karen J. Foli and John R. Thompson, 2004

The Post-Adoption Blues is designed to do two things. The first is to explain the common issues that face most, if not all, families during the post-adoption period. The second is to provide simple, effective help for you, the adoptive or kinship parent. The authors explore how to consciously acknowledge the expectations that may be contributing to the struggles, make sense of the nagging emotions that can keep parents from the joy of parenting, and how to move confidently and happily forward as parents and as a family.

The Post Adoption Experience: Adoptive Families’ Service Needs and Service Outcomes

Child Welfare League of America, edited by Martha Dore, 2006

For children unable to live with their biological families, adoption can provide the permanent, stable environment needed for healthy growth and development. Ironically, however, supporting and preserving adoptive families traditionally receives less attention than the adoption process itself. Successful and achievable approaches to meeting the needs of adoptive families and their children are explored.

The Primal Wound: Understanding the Adopted Child

Nancy Newton Verrier, 1993

The Primal Wound is a book that is both forceful and courageous in the way it approaches the subject of adoption. Using information about pre- and perinatal psychology, attachment, bonding, and loss, it illuminates the effect that separation from their birthmother has on adopted children. This book provides validation of many adoptees’ feelings, as well as bringing clarity and understanding to their experiences.

Promoting Successful Adoptions: Practice with Troubled Families

Susan Smith and Jeanne Howard, 1999

Focus is on adoptive families after the adoption is finalized; case examples, detailed case histories, presentation of strategies and resources are included.

Still Screaming: Birth Parents Compulsorily Separated from their Children

Lyn Charlton, Maureen Clark, et al., 1998

The adoption of children against the wishes of their birth families is the most forceful of state interventions into family life. The parents of children who are adopted compulsorily become, in law, strangers to their children and will never again be allowed to make key decisions in their children’s lives. For many, the ties to their children are permanently severed. What are the implications of birth parents who find themselves in this situation? What services do they need? And how should these be delivered?

Treating Attachment Disorders: From Theory to Therapy

Karl Heinz Brisch, 2004

As research leads to an increasingly better understanding of attachment disorders, the tools available to professionals and parents for treatment continue to improve. This book is one such tool, offering an in-depth analysis of the many manifestations and intensities of attachment problems, form pre-conception to post-birth and post-adoption. With comprehensive yet easy-to-understand text, this is a great resource for anyone dealing with attachment problems.

Treating the Aftermath of Sexual Abuse: A Handbook for Working with Children in Care

M. Osmond, D. Durham, A. Leggett, and J. Keating, 1998

Many children who are in foster care or are adopted have been sexually abused in a previous placement. How can you help such a child to find the path to healing? What are the best methods of treatment? How can you understand the signs and signals of the child’s behavior? Treating the Aftermath of Sexual Abuse guides caregivers and professionals as they learn to become careful, thoughtful listeners in order to understand the child’s story.

Treating Traumatized Children: New Insights and Creative Interventions

Beverly James, 1989

This book is important to seasoned and new clinicians alike. It discusses the do’s and don’ts of working with abused children and teaches what step in treatment follows another step, cautioning about what will happen if we are impatient or act from our own agenda. There is also a blueprint for assessing the impact of trauma and developing treatment plans. Art, play, and dream techniques, to name a few, are covered.

Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma

Peter A. Levine with Ann Frederick, 1997

This book looks to nature for lessons in healing. The author looks deeply into trauma and how life events can overwhelm us mentally and physically. Common physical ailments and so-called medically untreatable syndromes are considered residues of thwarted trauma reactions incurred during routine surgical procedures, falls, prenatal stress and other childhood accidents and traumas. Waking the Tiger is for professionals, as well as individuals coping with trauma.