Starting Treatment With Children and Adolescents: A Process-Oriented Guide for Therapists
"Steven Tuber and Jane Cflisch’s new book, Starting Treatment with Children and Adolescents: A Process-Oriented Guide for Therapists is a refreshing primer for the beginning child therapist who, by virtue of her trade, must become an aficionado of the story as it expresses itself through a child’s play or the adolescent’s more sophisticated stories. Such fresh advances can come with their own excitement at putting ideas and feelings together on a deeper level as well as discomfort in feeling the stretch of a new reach." –The International Journal of Psychoanalysis"This is an excellent book. Tuber and Caflisch present us with "a process-oriented guide" aimed for beginning child therapists and their supervisors, but it will be valuable too for more experienced child therapists as well as adult therapists." –Psychoanalytic Psychology"I have been teaching child psychotherapy for nearly 30 years, and this is the first and only book I have found truly helpful in illuminating the processes that underlie the craft, intuition, and rigor of working with children and their families. It is simply a brilliant and deeply humane book that is pitch perfect for beginners and more advanced trainees alike."- Arietta Slade, The City College and City University of New York, USA, and Yale Child Study Center, Connecticut, USA“This book, which simulates the experience of being in training with a master clinician and supervisor, is a remarkable contribution to the field of child therapy. What Tuber and Caflisch provide are not idealized portrayals of clinical cases designed to support a theory but real transcripts illustrating the ups and downs of real clinical work. The authors’ comments about hindering interventions are as valuable as those about helpful interventions, and the illustrations of how the therapist might have intervened differently in different contexts are tremendously illuminating. This is a “must read” book for child clinicians of all orientations, and all levels of experience.” -Jeremy D. Safran, New School for Social Research, New York, USA, and International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis & Psychotherapy "Starting Treatment with Children and Adolescents" essentially consists of 12 process recordings with sessions of children 5 to 14 years, with supervisory comments interspersed throughout. The richness and comprehensiveness of the material will undoubtedly allay the anxiety of beginning child clinicians, as well as anyone anxious to discover, what really happens during the course of play therapy..... By providing us with a window into the mysterious world of play therapy, the authors help to demystify the goings-on in the treatment room, and in so doing, help the beginning child therapist and his or her patients learn how to make sense of the world, and go on being with each other." -Seth Aronson, William Alanson White Institute, in the journalPsychotherapy“Here is one of those rare examples of a can’t-put-down book that you want immediately to share with all your friends and colleagues. It is based around the simple yet profound idea that the purpose of child psychotherapy is not to make clever interpretations, but, by commenting on process, and developing a feeling language, equipping patients to become their own ‘child clinicians’—the better to read and understand themselves and others. It is the best ‘how to do it’ psychotherapy book I have ever read, and is destined to be on the shelves of all psychoanalysts, psychotherapists and child mental health workers, students and doyens alike.” -Jeremy Holmes, University of Exeter, UK“Starting Treatment With Children and Adolescentsprovides an outstanding view into the process of child therapy and the cognitive activity of the clinician. Many books about child psychotherapy tend to lecture the reader about the ‘do's and don'ts’ of treatment. This book teaches by example and explanation, and in reading it I had the feeling I was privileged to witness clinical supervisory sessions.”- Eugene J. D'Angelo, Children's Hospital Boston, Massachusetts, USA“Starting Treatment With Children and Adolescentsis a masterful blend of clinical wisdom, experience, and rare insight intersecting with uncommon empathy and compassion. The authors bring the reader into the therapy room to witness the unfolding of the beginning of the therapy process, but what makes the book unique are the interwoven rich observations and astute clinical insights of Steven Tuber, a gifted clinician who has taught and supervised numerous child therapy graduate students at CUNY for more than three decades. This is a book that the child therapy field has long awaited, and one which will be read, reread, and treasured for many years to come.” - David A. Crenshaw, Rhinebeck Child & Family Center, New York, USA"This creative volume provides the reader with the unusual opportunity to learn issues, concepts and techniques that serve managing the complexities of beginning a psychotherapy process with a child. Each of the book’s chapters invites and encourages the reader to enter the playroom and experience and observe the interacting and negotiating taking place between child and therapist.Starting Treatment With Children and Adolescentsis an excellent guide for experienced as well as beginning child therapists."- Sebastiano Santostefano, author ofChild Therapy in the Great Outdoors: A Relational View"This is an excellent book. Tuber and Caflisch present us with a "process-oriented guide" aimed for beginning child therapists and their supervisors, but it will be valuable for more experienced child therapists as well as adult therapists."- John Rosegrant, Ph.D inPsychoanalytic Psychology"[This book] is a refreshing primer for the beginning child therapist who, by virtue of her trade, must become an aficionado of the story as it expresses itself through a child's play or the adolescent's more sophisticated stories. Tuber and Caflisch follow the tradition of the ancients in our own field - on the playground of Winnicott and others - who deepen the child's sense of wholeness and aliveness by giving them the agency to tell the stories they never dreamed they could tell." -Claudia Lament in theInternational Journal of Psychoanalysis"Tuber and Caflisch bring us into the wild and sometimes chaotic world of play therapy, with all of its unexpected delights and mysteries. While geared toward the beginning therapist, all clinicians working with children will find themselves challenged and engaged by this book.Unlike other introductory books, this book is unique in that it uses raw material from beginning therapists – material that is as difficult, forthright and honest as any that a therapist will likely encounter early in their careers, and indeed, throughout their professional lives.Reading this book is like participating in a child therapy seminar of the highest order, one that allows for frank discussions of what actually transpired in the playroom between child patient and therapist – omitting neither the good nor the bad nor, at times, the ugly. The book gives the reader the impression that she is engaged in a deep, on-going conversation with a wise, experienced teacher who truly appreciates the whirlwind world of child play therapy. The authors’ tone is profoundly respectful of new therapists, who must learn to be intrepid and resilient when they are confronted with challenging moments in the consulting room.Becoming a child therapist requires the capacity to enter into the world of the child’s play – to peer down into the rabbit hole, even to reach in and explore, but not to tumble all the way down, not to lose one’s footing while trying to keep up with the child’s imagination and unconscious conflict. In this book, Tuber and Calflisch, like trusted and compassionate guides in the wilderness, invite new clinicians to enter into the work of child therapy with open minds, with the willingness to make mistakes and be baffled, and with the hope that the work will ultimately bring deep satisfaction and will accomplish enduring effects for those children who enter our consulting rooms."- Anne J. Adelman, Ph.D.,Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association