Immediate interventions for struggling families, integrating four distinct areas of psychology. Children and families burdened with attachment disruption, emotional distress, or psychological disorders need effective and immediate assistance. They do not have the time to wait for long-term interventions or developmental changes to improve the parent-child relationship. Here, psychologists Elizabeth A. Sylvester and Kat Scherer provide the most effective approach in such situations: interventions that impact the entire family at relational, emotional, and cognitive-behavioral levels, and that give parents agency to have rapid therapeutic impact on their children’s lives and well-being. This addition to the celebrated Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology integrates four distinct areas of psychology: neurobiology, attachment theory, emotion, and relationship-based discipline. This integration produces a clear point of entry for therapists working with struggling families and provides interventions that are logical, doable, and highly effective.
Immediate interventions for struggling families, integrating four distinct areas of psychology. Children and families burdened with attachment disruption, emotional distress, or psychological disorders need effective and immediate assistance. They do not have the time to wait for long-term interventions or developmental changes to improve the parent-child relationship. Here, psychologists Elizabeth A. Sylvester and Kat Scherer provide the most effective approach in such situations: interventions that impact the entire family at relational, emotional, and cognitive-behavioral levels, and that give parents agency to have rapid therapeutic impact on their children’s lives and well-being. This addition to the celebrated Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology integrates four distinct areas of psychology: neurobiology, attachment theory, emotion, and relationship-based discipline. This integration produces a clear point of entry for therapists working with struggling families and provides interventions that are logical, doable, and highly effective.
Neurodiversity-Affirming Psychotherapy: Clinical Pathways to Autistic Mental Health provides an attachment-based framework within which clinicians can support autistic/neurodivergent clients to benefit from effective, trauma-informed psychotherapy. This book builds upon practice-based evidence to guide neurotypical psychotherapists in case conceptualization and treatment planning for autistic/neurodivergent individuals, many of whom received behaviour modification rather than psychotherapy to address mental health needs in childhood. Widening the lens on autistic wellbeing, the author addresses multiple features of diagnosed and undiagnosed neurodivergence, highlighting the pivotal elements of communication, sensory processing, and executive functioning, and emphasizing secure attachment relationships as foundational to mental health. Throughout the book, the neurodiversity-affirming approach and framework are illuminated through clinical examples. This book delivers practical guidance and clinical insight, offering therapists a clear understanding of the mental health issues commonly experienced by autistic/neurodivergent adults, and guiding them and their clients along a robust pathway to autistic mental health.
"Integrative Attachment Family Therapy (IAFT), developed by family therapy expert and attachment specialist Dafna Lender, is a powerful intervention approach that addresses a wide array of issues that make their way to a therapist's office: difficult behaviors on the part of the child, such as frequent arguments and tantrums, disobedience, and indifference, and reactive behaviors on the part of the parents, such as yelling, pleading, threatening, and giving up or giving in. Instead of viewing the child as the problem, IAFT addresses the crux of the issue: a misalignment in the parent-child relationship. In this treatment guide, Dafna walks readers through the IAFT framework, providing therapeutic insight and concrete strategies to help families achieve meaningful and lasting change."--Publisher's description.
Uniting attachment-focused therapy and neurobiology to help distrustful and traumatized children revive a sense of trust and connection. How can therapists and caregivers help maltreated children recover what they were born with: the potential to experience the safety, comfort, and joy of having trustworthy, loving adults in their lives? This groundbreaking book explores, for the first time, how the attachment-focused family therapy model can respond to this question at a neural level. It is a rich, accessible investigation of the brain science of early childhood and developmental trauma. Each chapter offers clinicians new insights—and powerful new methods—to help neglected and insecurely attached children regain a sense of safety and security with caring adults. Throughout, vibrant clinical vignettes drawn from the authors' own experience illustrate how informed clinical processes can promote positive change. Authors Baylin and Hughes have collaborated for many years on the treatment of maltreated children and their caregivers. Both experienced psychologists, their shared project has bee the development of the science-based model of attachment-focused therapy in this book—a model that links clinical interventions to the crucial underlying processes of trust, mistrust, and trust building—helping children learn to trust caregivers and caregivers to be the "trust builders" these children need. The book begins by explaining the neurobiology of blocked trust, using the latest social neuroscience to show how the child's early development gets channeled into a core strategy of defensive living. Subsequent chapters address, among other valuable subjects, how new research on behavioral epigenetics has shown ways that highly stressful early life experiences affect brain development through patterns of gene expression, adapting the child's brain for mistrust rather than trust, and what it means for treatment approaches. Finally, readers will learn what goes on in the child's brain during attachment-focused therapy, honing in on the dyadic processes of adult-child interaction that seem to embody the core "mechanisms of change": elements of attachment-focused interventions that target the child's defensive brain, calm this system, and reopen the child's potential to learn from new experiences with caring adults, and that it is safe to depend upon them. If trust is to develop and care is to be restored, clinicians need to know what prevents the development of trust in the first place, particularly when a child is living in an environment of good care for a long period of time. What do abuse and neglect do to the development of children's brains that makes it so difficult for them to trust adults who are so different from those who hurt them? This book presents a brain-based understanding that professionals can apply to answering these questions and encouraging the development of healthy trust.
Attachment-Focused Family Play Therapy presents an essential roadmap for therapists working with traumatized youth. Exploring trauma and attachment through a neurobiological focus, the book lays out a flexible framework for practitioners treating young clients within the context of their family relationships. Chapters demonstrate how techniques of play and expressive therapy can be integrated into work with different developmental stages, while providing the tools needed to fully incorporate the family into the healing process. The book also provides clinical examples and guidance on the ethical decision-making needed to effectively implement attachment work and facilitate positive change. Written in an accessible style, Attachment-Focused Family Play Therapy is an important resource for mental health professionals who work with traumatized children, adolescents, and adults.
Walking readers through the core brain systems involved in caregiving and the various types of blocked care that can occur, readers learn how to harness their brain chemistry to master emotional regulation, strengthen reflective capacities, expand attunement, and remain mindful.
Theraplay?a pioneering application of attachment theory to clinical work—helps parents learn and practice how to provide the playful engagement, empathic responsiveness, and clear guidance that lead to secure attachment and lifelong mental health in their children. This third edition of the groundbreaking book Theraplay shows how to use play to engage children in interactions that lead to competence, self-regulation, self-esteem, and trust. Theraplay's relationship-based approach is uniquely designed to help families facing today's busy and often chaotic lifestyle challenges form joyful, loving relationships.
A stronger bond between parents and children can repair family dynamics. Integrated attachment family therapy (IAFT), developed by family therapy expert Dafna Lender, is a multidimensional framework that heals and strengthens attachment issues in the parent-child relationship. Grounded within the principles of Theraplay, dyadic development psychotherapy, and polyvagal theory, this powerful framework addresses a variety of problematic and difficult behaviors in children (e.g., frequent arguments and tantrums, disobedience, and indifference) as well as reactive behaviors in parents (e.g., yelling, pleading, threatening, and giving up or giving in). How does it work? Rather than attempting to "fix" the child - fixing their anger issues or defiance, for instance - IAFT treats the underlying cause of family strife: a misalignment in the parent-child relationship where the child does not feel deeply understood or accepted. By focusing on the physiologic sense of safety and connection between the parent and child, IAFT helps clinicians uncover the reasons for this misalignment so they can guide families toward the source of the issue rather than focusing on superficial behaviors. With its innovative, yet accessible, play-based activities and interventions, IAFT transforms families into happy and well-functioning environments where children thrive and parents feel satisfied in their role.
An expert clinician brings attachment theory into the realm of parenting skills. Attachment security and affect regulation have long been buzzwords in therapy circles, but many of these ideas—so integral to successful therapeutic work with kids and adolescents— have yet to be effectively translated to parenting practice itself. Moreover, as neuroscience reveals how the human brain is designed to work in good relationships, and how such relationships are central to healthy human development, the practical implications for the parent-child attachment relationship become even more apparent. Here, a leading attachment specialist with over 30 years of clinical experience brings the rich and comprehensive field of attachment theory and research from inside the therapy room to the outside, equipping therapists and caregivers with practical parenting skills and techniques rooted in proven therapeutic principles. A guide for all parents and a resource for all mental health clinicians and parent-educators who are searching for ways to effectively love, discipline, and communicate with children, this book presents the techniques and practices that are fundamental to optimal child development and family functioning—how to set limits, provide guidance, and manage the responsibilities and difficulties of daily life, while at the same time communicating safety, fun, joy, and love. Filled with valuable clinical vignettes and sample dialogues, Hughes shows how attachment-focused research can guide all those who care for children in their efforts to better raise them.
