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This book is for youth workers, social workers, mental health staff, specialist teachers, family support workers, and so on, whose clients present with comorbidity, risk, and difficulty accessing mainstream services. It describes inevitably stressful, unsettling work, providing effective help in complex helping systems. An innovative response emerges, building on adaptive (evidence-based) mentalization-based theory and practice. Uniquely, AMBIT applies mentalizing not only directly, in work with clients, but also in work: (a) with the team, (b) with wider (often “dis-integrated”) networks, and (c) creating cultures of learning and radical transparency. AMBIT is as much an improvement system for teams as a “therapy”—strengthening team identity and coherence, and supporting a wider community of practice. Linking evidence-based practice to practice-based evidence, the book concludes with impact descriptions from some of the nearly 200 AMBIT-trained teams, a client’s perspective, and a challenging analysis of systems of care pointing toward the need to create more mentalizing systems.Less

Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Clinical Handbook is an edited volume that summarizes the current state of the research concerning adolescents and young adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This is important, as the research indicates that young adults have low rates of attendance in post-secondary education, of being competitively employed, and of living independently. Traditionally, the field of autism has focused on early screening, diagnosis, and intervention. The poor outcomes indicate that individuals with ASD experience lifelong struggles, and few other books have focused on adolescents and young adults with ASD. Experts from a multitude of disciplines serving this population have written chapters that summarize the research in their area of expertise and offer practical suggestions for clinicians, teachers, and parents. Each chapter provides a bullet-point abstract, a list of additional resources, and study questions. These features are designed to make it useful for college-level instructors. In addition, each chapter provides suggestions for future research, which are designed to move the field forward.Less

There are many challenges to be faced in contemporary society including the stresses of everyday living in the technological age and changes in patterns of employment and family life. Depression is being experienced in ‘epidemic’ proportions in many Western communities, and in particular amongst young people. The search for effective ways to reverse this trend has resulted in a significant shift in psychological approach from a focus on helplessness and pathology to a more positive orientation that emphasises health and well-being. This volume brings together leading researchers in the field of stress and coping to consider ways in which coping research contributes to our understanding of how people in different sectors of life meet goals and challenges. It provides a synthesis of different but compatible theoretical models that have been developed in the field of stress and coping and provides a way forward beyond the traditional stress and coping paradigms. The emergent model is able to be used to assess a wide range of issues in the stress and coping domain.Less

This book provides an overview of research on the prevalence, dynamics, and impact of child sexual abuse (CSA), as well as factors that influence youth recovery. The history, development, and numerous treatment outcome studies evaluating the efficacy of trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT), an evidence-based treatment model designed for this population, are described. This includes a clinical overview outlining the theories, principles, values, and components associated with this model and suggestions for addressing complex trauma responses, developmental, and cultural considerations. Screening, engagement, and assessment strategies, as well as general guidelines for using this practical treatment guide are also outlined. The chapters that follow outline practical steps for engaging nonoffending caregivers and youth facing the crisis of CSA in separate individual parent and child sessions as well as conjoint sessions. The acronym PRACTICE outlines the TF-CBT treatment components which include Psychoeducation and parenting, Relaxation, Affect expression and modulation skills, Cognitive coping, Trauma narrative and processing, In vivo mastery, Conjoint sessions, and Enhancing safety and future development. TF-CBT session activities that may be used to implement each of the treatment components are described via clinical descriptions, case examples, and therapist-client dialogues. General suggestions for planning and celebrating the end of therapy are provided. Special considerations and guidelines for addressing sexual behavior problems and difficulties associated with experiencing commercial sexual exploitation are offered. The appendix includes a glossary of terms, useful therapist forms, and valuable client handouts that provide psychoeducation, as well as guidelines for practicing skills between sessions.Less

The book is intended for professionals and researchers involved in education and intervention with children and youth who have autism spectrum disorder. As an edited volume, the book features chapters that address assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and evaluation among the ASD population. Specifically, the book looks at recent developments in service delivery, including innovations of established practices as well as emerging strategies and methods that have proven promising. The chapters examine the research literature, discuss procedural implications, and make recommendations for future practice and inquiry.Less

This online resource provides a practical guide for implementing cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for children and their families coping with the consequences of persisting pain. It is divided into three sections. The first section presents a brief history, theoretical foundations, and background concerning the development of CBT interventions for children with chronic pain conditions and summarizes research results on the efficacy of CBT. The second section covers assessment and evaluation approaches, patient education, and how to structure and sequence CBT interventions with children and families. The final section describes in detail each cognitive-behavioral intervention, including relaxation and cognitive skills and interventions directed at parents, sleep problems, physical activity, and school functioning. Extensive suggested dialogue and detailed instructions and forms are included, and accompanying appendices provide user-friendly therapist training materials for successful application of clinical techniques to children and families.Less

This book address nine unique and overlapping special populations of students whose life circumstances put them at greater risk for poor mental health outcomes and school failure: students who are homeless, students living in foster care, students involved with the juvenile justice system, students who are LGBTQ, students who are pregnant or parenting, students who are gifted, students with incarcerated parents, students in military families, and students who are at risk for school failure and dropout. Many of these students demonstrate incredible resilience in spite of their life circumstances, but they need mental health support to manage the impact of victimization, unstable living situations, and social stigma, among other challenges. Each chapter examines relevant background information regarding one population of students, provides specific counseling strategies and techniques to address students’ needs and promote resilience, and offers resources and strategies for supporting students beyond the counseling office. Individual and group counseling are addressed, as well as advanced counseling techniques, including cognitive-behavioral therapy, solution-focused brief therapy, and motivational interviewing.Less

This volume provides practicing clinicians and researchers with an update on treatments found to be effective in pediatric psychology as well as those that are emerging in the field and have promise of being proven effective as additional research is conducted. Several chapters contain descriptions of different treatment protocols as well as specific scripts for certain procedures. These materials will be useful to clinicians in their day-to-day practice and clinical researchers in implementing and/or developing research protocols. Leading pediatric psychology intervention researchers generously provide details of their treatments for a number of pediatric problems. This title provides a means by which treatment manuals and related data on the outcomes of interventions can be disseminated to practicing pediatric psychologists and to investigators.Less

This volume brings forefront research in emotion regulation and how processes underlying emotion regulation have a bearing on the field of child and adolescent psychopathology. The book shows continuity by initially introducing the topic of emotion and its regulation and then narrowing its scope, analyzing the role emotion regulation plays in specific disorders while critically examining current assessment and treatment strategies. This 20-chapter volume consists of four sections. The first section includes an introduction to the field of emotion regulation in adolescents, touching upon the cultural, social, biological and developmental issues related to this topic. Section two discusses several psychological disorders impacting adolescents such as anxiety, depression and conduct problems, while also discussing the underlying role emotion regulation plays in the development, maintenance and propagation of these disorders. The third section focuses on the role of emotion regulation in specific behaviour/populations, such as children of abuse and neglect and adolescents who engage in nonsuicidal self-injury. The final section conceptualizes emotional regulation as a transdiagnostic process and discusses innovative approaches to treatment that arise when viewed through this lens.Less

This handbook provides a comprehensive discussion of the key elements which should be part of any successful program tailored to the needs of children with diagnosable mental, behavioral, or emotional disorders. The overall goal of the title is to provide an overview of the psychological services available to children and adolescents in school and community settings. The book is divided into five parts: “Framing the Issues,” “Delivering Psychological Services in Diverse Settings,” “Preventive Interventions,” “Treatments with Specific Populations,” and “System-Level Consultation.” Settings,” “Preventive Interventions,”Less

This title provides information that can help readers better understand and combat selective mutism. Written for guidance counselors, teachers, principals and deans, school psychologists, and school-based social workers, this book educates readers about the nature of selective mutism and its most common clinical manifestations (such as social anxiety, oppositional behavior, and communication difficulties). Offering methods to determine the form and function of a child's chronically mute behavior, the book provides evidence-based strategies to enhance a child's verbal participation at school and in other social and academic activities. The chapters provide advice for working collaboratively with parents, preventing relapse, and tackling special issues.Less

The overall purpose of this book is to provide a highly practical guide for school professionals to efficiently address cases of youth with school refusal behavior at different levels of severity and complexity. School refusal behavior can consist of full or part-day absences, tardiness, skipped classes, morning misbehaviors in an attempt to miss school, and school attendance under considerable duress. School refusal behavior is a pervasive and difficult problem faced by many types of mental health professionals (e.g., psychologists, psychiatrists, marriage and family therapists), school officials (e.g., administrators, guidance counselors, school-based social workers, school psychologists), and others (e.g., pediatricians, probation officers). School refusal behavior, even in mild forms, has been shown to be a significant risk factor for social, behavioral, and academic problems in middle childhood and adolescence as well as psychiatric, economic, and occupational difficulties in adulthood. This book provides assessment and intervention strategies along a multi-tiered model that includes systemic approaches to prevent school absenteeism (Tier 1), clinical techniques for emerging or moderate cases of absenteeism (Tier 2), and educational and other procedures for chronic and severe cases of absenteeism (Tier 3).Less

Designed for both researchers and practitioners, this title is a guide to bridging the gap between the knowledge generated by scientific research and application of that knowledge to educational practice. With the emphasis on evidence-based practice in the schools growing exponentially, school practitioners must learn how to understand, judge, and make use of the research being produced to full effect. Conversely, researchers must understand what is being used in "real-world" settings, and what is still needed. The editors of this volume have outlined this process as a series of steps, beginning with being a critical consumer of current research literature, followed by concepts to consider in translating research into practice: systems issues at local, district, and state levels; the role of teachers in program implementation; evaluation of implementation effectiveness, and preservice and inservice professional development of teachers and psychologists. Each chapter is written by leaders on the topic, and contributors include both researchers and school-based practitioners. With contributing authors from a variety of disciplines, this book is an invaluable treatise on current understanding of the complexities of translating research into educational practice.Less

Juvenile offending and anti-social behaviour are enormous societal concerns. This broad-reaching volume summarizes the current evidence on prevention, diversion, causes, and rates of delinquency, as well as assessment of risk and intervention needs. A distinguished cast of contributors from law, psychology, and psychiatry describe what we know about interventions in school, community, and residential contexts, focusing particularly on interventions that are risk reducing and cost effective. Equally important, each chapter comments on what is not well supported through research, distinguishing aspects of current practice that are likely to be effective from those that are not and mapping new directions for research, policy, and practice. Finally, the volume provides a description of a model curriculum for training legal and mental health professionals on conducting relevant assessments of adolescents for the courts.Less

Serving as a functional guide, this text expertly prepares clinicians for the challenging task of evaluating juveniles, picking up where traditional clinical training often falls short and providing state-of-the-art assessment techniques as well as an overview of treatment modalities. Chapters highlight the many ways in which juveniles charged with sexual offenses differ from adults, the common dilemmas facing evaluators, and the changing perceptions and legal trends with respect to youth crime. Chapters also cover sexual development and behaviors among children and adolescents, risk factors and risk assessment, case examples for working with attorneys, and interventions and pharmacological approaches. Clinical practitioners with limited forensic training will benefit from the guidance on formal forensic evaluation and the review of literature on assessment approaches specific to youth, while forensic experts will gain developmental perspective in evaluating and treating young sexual offenders. Set in a hopeful and optimistic framework, this title is a practical, empirically based guide on the best practices in evaluating and treating this poorly understood and underserved populationLess

There are many stressful factors in modern society affecting young people. Much has been written about adult coping strategies, but relatively little has been written about the developmental aspects and issues surrounding this topic. As well as providing a much-needed theoretical framework, this title evaluates practical applications and programmes, signposts to what works and what does not work. As such, it will be useful to developmental psychologists, social scientists, educators, and those involved in child welfare.Less

This book provides an integrative strategy for preventing, assessing, and addressing cases with school absenteeism at multiple levels of severity and complexity. School absenteeism is a pervasive, difficult problem faced by many types of school officials, mental health professionals, and others and, even in mild forms, is a significant risk factor for social, behavioral, and academic problems in middle childhood and adolescence as well as psychiatric, economic, and occupational difficulties in adulthood. Problematic absenteeism has been examined for decades in many disciplines, which has created a considerably fractured literature. Some professionals examine anxiety-based school refusal, whereas others examine delinquent-based truancy. This has produced little consensus regarding prevention, assessment, and intervention for all cases of absenteeism. This book addresses the lack of consensus by presenting a multitiered approach concentrating on prevention (Tier 1), early intervention for emerging cases (Tier 2), and extensive intervention and systemic strategies for severe cases (Tier 3). Each tier is based upon empirically supported strategies. The framework for this multitiered approach is based on a Response to Intervention model that is based upon several tenets that parallel developments in the school absenteeism literature: (1) a proactive focus on early identification of learning and behavior problems and immediate, effective intervention; (2) universal, targeted, and intensive interventions; (3) frequent progress monitoring; (4) functional behavioral assessment; (5) empirically supported treatment procedures and protocols to reduce obstacles to academic achievement (including absenteeism); and (6) a team-based approach for implementation.Less

Pain is a frequent experience for children of all ages. Unfortunately, one in four children and adolescents suffers from some form of pain that doesn’t resolve quickly and becomes a chronic or persistent problem. There are very few specialized services available to provide evaluation and treatment to children with chronic pain. This means that many families are not able to get the help they need. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is an effective treatment that has been used for over 30 years for children with chronic pain. Managing Your Child’s Chronic Pain provides instruction in psychological treatment strategies for parents to use at home to help their child and family to better cope with chronic pain. The book provides instruction in several cognitive and behavioral skills, including relaxation strategies, reward systems, supporting physical activity and healthy lifestyle habits, strategies to improve sleep, supporting school and social relationships, and problem-solving and positive thinking skills. Parents are provided with suggestions for homework assignments and practice opportunities to encourage rapid learning of each skill. A unique feature of the book is that each chapter uses stories, quotes, and vignettes of children with chronic pain and their families based on real-life examples. The goal of this book is to provide parents with strategies that will help their children manage pain and participate more fully in their daily lives.Less

College students and other young adults today are experiencing high levels of stress as they pursue personal, educational, and career goals. In recent years there has been increased awareness of the seriousness of these struggles, which may increase the risk of psychological distress and mental illness among this age group now commonly referred to as “emerging adults.” Scientific research has shown that practicing mindfulness can help manage stress and enhance quality of life, but traditional methods of teaching mindfulness and meditation are not always effective for emerging adults. Mindfulness for the Next Generation is an easy-to-use guide that details Koru Mindfulness, a curriculum developed at Duke University, designed specifically for teaching mindfulness to emerging adults. Koru has been tested and shown to be effective for helping this age group learn the practice of mindfulness. Koru is now used at hundreds of universities in the United States and abroad. In Mindfulness for the Next Generation, authors Holly Rogers and Margaret Maytan, the developers of the Koru program, discuss the unique challenges emerging adults face, review the research on Koru and mindfulness in general for this population, and provide an overview of the Koru curriculum. This book is the primary resource for individuals learning to teach the Koru curriculum.Less

Despite impressive progress and achievements in child psychotherapy research over the past six decades, which have yielded many effective treatments for a large variety of child problems, there is an increasing need to move beyond the questions of efficacy or effectiveness (“Did the intervention work?”) to questions of mediation and moderation of intervention outcomes (“How and why did it work, and for whom?”). Moderation research may determine conditions under which treatments are most effective and for whom, and mediation research may result in the improvement of interventions by showing which processes may be considered important mechanisms of action, and which intervention elements are critical in influencing these important processes. This book aims to give an up-to-date overview of the extant research on moderation and mediation in treatment outcome research of major child problems. The authors of the chapters, all experts in their various domains, provide theoretical conceptualizations of important moderation and mediation models underlying youth interventions, summarize evidence from empirical research, and highlight current challenges and solutions related to the conduct of moderation and mediation research in youth populations. Moderators and Mediators of Youth Treatment Outcomes is primarily written for clinical researchers in child and adolescent mental health. However, the book will also be of interest to all child and adolescent mental health clinicians in training and practicing professionals, including psychotherapists, psychiatrists, and pediatricians.Less