Getting Through to Difficult Kids and Parents: Uncommon Sense for Child Professionals

From experienced therapist Ron Taffel–widely known for his well loved parenting guides–this is a commonsense handbook for any mental health, education, or medical professional working with challenging kids and parents. Provided are concrete strategies for building rapport with stressed-out families, getting children and adolescents to talk about what really matters, spotting developmental and psychiatric problems before a crisis develops, and developing skills to strengthen kids’ self-esteem and parents’ effectiveness in setting limits. Illustrative case vignettes get to the heart of what is going incorrect between youngsters and their parents and show how simple, concrete interventions can make a huge difference. Also covered in depth are ways for professionals to handle their own emotional responses in highly charged situations.