Adoption is a transformational process bringing parenthood to those who long for but cannot bear children and giving stranded children home, family, and their place in the world. But every adoption is preceded and followed by its story and when these stories are told in the offices of psychotherapists we begin to understand the impact of adoption in all its complexity. We learn from parents how their quest to have and raise a child has played out in real life, and what shadows might have f...

Contemporary attachment theory both enriches our understanding of human development and informs clinical practice. Examining the relational bonds between young children and their caregivers, it traces its origins to several scientific and social fields, most notably psychoanalysis, social work, behaviorism, ethology, evolutionary theory, and biology.The first portion of this book examines attachment theory and its relationship to other psychodynamic theories of development and then...

Narration and Therapeutic Action raises challenging questions about the limitations of science and of scientific inquiry for the practice of social work. In doing so, this innovative book calls upon clinical social workers, psychologists, and psychoanalysts to examine some of the most fundamental assumptions about the clinical process and what is “therapeutic” about it. Written by social work clinicians and theorists, the book explores the construction of meaning within the dual framework ...

In the nearly one hundred years that have elapsed since Freud’s publication of his pioneering work with “Little Hans,” psychoanalysis has transformed not only our clinical work with children, but has immeasurably enriched our understanding of normal child and adolescent development as well as developmental deviations and derailments. We have gradually come to understand childhood and adolescence as a complex tapestry of developmental themes, conflicts, and crises; sometimes discontinuous o...

Allegories, fables, myths, legends, and other time-honored forms of storytelling have been used since the beginning of recorded history to convey important values and moral precepts to the young. Storytelling comes naturally to children, and also offers them an unparalleled means through which they may express the fantasies, anxieties, and conflicts of their inner lives.In Of Mice and Metaphors, Second Edition, psychoanalyst and child treatment specialist Jerrold R...

An expanded and revised edition of the first social work text to focus specifically on the theoretical and clinical issues associated with trauma, this comprehensive anthology incorporates the latest research in trauma theory and clinical applications. It presents key developments in the conceptualization of trauma and covers a wide range of clinical treatments.Trauma features coverage of emerging therapeutic modalities and clinical themes, focusing on the experiences of h...

An expanded and revised edition of the first social work text to focus specifically on the theoretical and clinical issues associated with trauma, this comprehensive anthology incorporates the latest research in trauma theory and clinical applications. It presents key developments in the conceptualization of trauma and covers a wide range of clinical treatments.Trauma features coverage of emerging therapeutic modalities and clinical themes, focusing on the experiences of h...

Trauma: Contemporary Directions in Theory, Practice, and Research is a comprehensive text on trauma, including such phenomena as sexual abuse, childhood trauma, PTSD, terrorism, natural disasters, cultural trauma, school shootings, and combat trauma. Addressing multiple theoretical systems and how each system conceptualizes trauma, the book offers valuable information about therapeutic process dimensions and the use of specialized methods and clinical techniques in trauma ...

Since Freud’s publication of 'Little Hans', advances in psychoanalytic technique and theory have transformed our clinical work with children. Individuals including Anna Freud, Melanie Klein and Donald Winnicott have influenced psychoanalytic play therapy and broadened the scope of practice with them. Contemporary psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic social work clinicians often find themselves responding to misapprehensions and distortions about psychoanalytic theory and treatment created or ...