Product Code: 0463
ISBN: 9781587600463
Published 2008
Editors Robert E. Lee PhD, ABPP, and Jason B. Whiting PhD have produced an immensely readable guide for therapists who work with children in foster care. Foster Care Therapist Handbook: Relational Approaches to the Children and Their Families focuses on the very successful relational therapy approach, which considers the whole relational environment for each child and endeavors to get all parts of it to work together for the child's sake.
Each section in this comprehensive guide is written by experts in the field. As a result, this volume draws on decades of experience and is expressed in plain terms and loaded with real-life examples. All facets of a therapist’s workload are addressed, from infants needing developmental catch-up to teenagers benefiting from "hip-hop therapy" to burnt-out therapists requiring care themselves.
By viewing these therapeutic responsibilities through the lens of relational therapy, all aspects are placed into proportion, so they can be easily identified and worked out. The emphasis is on "What works with my case, right here, right now? What will help me help them?"
Praise for Foster Care Therapist Handbook
"The book will live up to my expectations: It is direct, practical, and offers fresh solutions to the intractable problems of the most vulnerable children in the child protection system. It is important reading for everyone who wants to stop the suffering of the children, of both their families, and of the professionals who too often are drained by the 'system.'"
--Patricia M. Crittenden PhD
Director, Family Relations Institute
"The information contained in this book is essential reading for social work students and agency personnel who work with foster children."
--Waln K. Brown PhD
Founder & CEO, The William Gladden Foundation
Contents
Part 1, The Culture and Environment of Foster Care
The Culture and Environment of Foster Care
An Ecosystemic Approach to Foster Care
Cultural Issues: Diversity and Child Welfare
The Perspective of the Consumer: Foster Children Tell Us What They Need
Ambiguous Loss: A Key Component of Foster Care
Part 2, Family Therapy Approaches
The Case for Relational Therapy with Young Children in Foster Care
Parent-Child Therapy for Traumatized YoungChildren in Foster Care
Providing Developmentally Appropriate Family Therapy
An Integrative Approach Involving the Biological and Foster Family Systems
Kinship Placements: An Integrative Approach
Creative Ways to Strengthen Family Bonds
Intervening with Foster Infants' Foster Parents: Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-Up
Supporting the Work of Foster Parents
"It Isn't Right!" The Need to Redress Experiences of Injustice in Child Abuse and Neglect
Part 3, Important "Other" Issues
"I Want This Child Out of Here Now!" How to Deal with Sexualized Acting Out in the Foster Environment: A "SMART" Approach to Assessment and Treatment
Combating a Family Culture of Violence
"We're in It Together": Family Therapy Where Substance Abuse Is a Problem
Teaching Developmentally Appropriate Parenting
"Ready or Not, Here I Come!": Equipping Families for Transitions
"But I Don't Trust You": Recognizing and Dealing with Parents' History of Trauma: The Story of Amy
When the Helper Becomes Traumatized: Taking Care of You