Latest Book Review: Child and Adolescent Therapy: Science and Art

 Child and Adolescent Therapy: Science and Art
 Jeremy Shapiro, Roberto Friedberg & Karen Bardenstein, Wiley
 ISBN: 0471386375,
 £60 (hardback)

 STAR RATING: 5/5

I was thoroughly impressed by this text. The authors integrate various therapeutic frameworks and reflect the multiple interventions available to therapists working with children and young people, writes Panos Vostanis.

Each of the main types of therapies (cognitive, behavioural, psychodynamic, family systems, solution-oriented) is described succinctly, including the schools that emerged from each model. Readers will enjoy the balance of underpinning theoretical background, setting objectives, applying key techniques, and evidence-base. These sections are nicely complemented with case material, which places therapies in a child-centred context.

The authors then “reverse” their approach, by considering the evidence for the use of therapeutic interventions for different mental health problems such as anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress and disruptive behaviours. This provides a broad and up-to-date overview of what works for children and young people, written in a practice-friendly style.

The book provides a good insight to the rationale and indication of different therapies for different child mental health presentations, will therefore be of interest to a wide range of practitioners, well beyond those specialising in a particular therapy.

Dr Panos Vostanis is professor of child and adolescent psychiatry,University of Leicester