When Your Child Needs Help: A Parent's Guide to Therapy for Children » (1st paperback ed)

One of America's top child psychologists provides reassuring advice for parents whose children are experiencing emotional or developmental problems. Here is the essential guide for every parent who is struggling to distinguish typical growing pains from more serious problems.

Publishers Weekly

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.)