cover image When Your Child Needs Help: A Parent's Guide to Therapy for Children

When Your Child Needs Help: A Parent's Guide to Therapy for Children

Norma Doft. Harmony, $18 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-517-58046-2

Children face many challenges on the path from infancy to adulthood, and sometimes these prove to be more than they can cope with. When this happens, a parent may have to make the difficult decision to seek professional help. Collaborating with New York freelancer Aria, Doft, a child psychologist, provides valuable guidelines for parents to use in determining whether a child is feeling unduly harsh growing pains, and when professional intervention is needed. She suggests how to choose the therapist best suited to the needs of a young patient. And she mentions many examples from her own experience to illustrate not only what a child is likely to experience in therapy, but what a parent's role should be. Doft devotes a lot of attention to the contributions of parents to successful therapy: where they should bolster the work being done, and how they can cope with concomitant problems of their own. Finally, she discusses progress, regression and terminating therapy. Recognizing that a child needs emotional help may be a wrenching step to take, but Doft's book will reassure parents who must take it. (Feb.)