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Rating: 
Summary: Hope For Parents of Defiant Kids
Review: (...)
This is by far the best book I have ever seen on this subject. As a psychologist with many years of experience treating "out of control" adolescents and their overwhelmed parents, I can attest to the monumental challenges faced by the therapists who treat them. It is extremely difficult for a therapist to not fall into the same helplessness suffered by the parents of severely defiant children, when intervention after intervention fails--as they usually do with "traditional" approaches. This book offers a highly structured group program for these parents and provides the therapist with an incredibly detailed "instruction manual" for running the group session-by-session. Like the 1-2-3 Magic program that is so effective for younger children, the clear and relatively "simple" principles that make this program so workable for parents belie its underlying psychological sophistication. While the program appeals to parents on a common-sense basis, the well-educated therapist will appreciate the fact that it is informed by mountains of professional knowlege. Although considerable education is delivered in the process, the program's focus is on developing effective parenting skills rather than insight (which is of so little use with kids who are truly "out of control".) Is this program fool-proof? Of course not. It is best used by people who are comfortable taking a directive--though necessarily supportive--posture with clients . . . something the classroom format makes much more natural. Is this an equally good self-help book? No way. Should this program be used only by trained mental health professionals or, as the authors suggest, can it be equally effective in the hands of teachers and others experienced in this area? I'm not sure what to say about this one--it makes sense that it could, and surely a skilled layperson would use it far more effectively than an *inept* mental health professional; for that matter, a skilled layperson would surely be just as effective as a skilled mental health professional. Probably the best I can say is that I would not recommend it to just anyone and everyone who has an interest in helping parents and kids. These kids and parents are real tough customers. I can say, however, that anyone who already deals with this group would be much better equiped for the job with this program. Having a thorough understanding of the subject, and a great deal of experience with this population, I have to admit that I wish I had thought of this program myself. If it were mine, I'd double or triple the price (after all, it comes with parent workbooks), and offer a money-back guarantee. There would be very few--if any--returns.
Rating:
Summary: Hope For Parents of Defiant Kids
Review: This is a skill-building program for parents of older children and teenagers with significant behavior problems. The manual is designed to train facilitators in hosting five-session skill-building programs. The program focuses on empowering parents, not through esteem-building but through strengthening their problem-solving skills. The main concepts are techniques to become more proactive and less reactive, gathering needed information and thereby increasing power, and building healthy alliances to counter the extreme behaviors of the children. The aim is to re-establish parents as benevolent authority figures within their own homes. The strongest aspect of the program is that it is very specific, very behavioral, and very much aimed at teaching methods. There is no lack of clarity whatsoever. My concern is that, like many books and programs in the mental health field, it borders on over-selling itself, and the authors make several sweeping statements. For example, therapists are described, several times, as often engaging in parent-blaming and misconduct-excusing. Some therapists do these counterproductive things, but many do not. If a family has a good therapist for their child, then attends this program, the parents might distance themselves from that good therapist. I think the statements in this area should be more conditional instead of declarative (i.e., "If you work with a therapist who . . ." instead of "You probably have encountered therapists who . . ."). This program would be most useful for parents of children with diagnoses like Oppositional Defiant Disorder and Conduct Disorder, but would need some adjusting for a parent of a child whose acting-out behaviors were connected directly to a definite thought disorder, where poor reality-testing is a major factor. For parents of children who have extreme behavior problems and no psychotic processes, the parents would likely benefit significantly from this program, as an adjunct to therapy that also aims at strengthening family role definitions, boundaries, and responsibility-taking.
Rating: 
Summary: A Bit Over-Stated, but Good
Review: This is a skill-building program for parents of older children and teenagers with significant behavior problems. The manual is designed to train facilitators in hosting five-session skill-building programs. The program focuses on empowering parents, not through esteem-building but through strengthening their problem-solving skills. The main concepts are techniques to become more proactive and less reactive, gathering needed information and thereby increasing power, and building healthy alliances to counter the extreme behaviors of the children. The aim is to re-establish parents as benevolent authority figures within their own homes. The strongest aspect of the program is that it is very specific, very behavioral, and very much aimed at teaching methods. There is no lack of clarity whatsoever. My concern is that, like many books and programs in the mental health field, it borders on over-selling itself, and the authors make several sweeping statements. For example, therapists are described, several times, as often engaging in parent-blaming and misconduct-excusing. Some therapists do these counterproductive things, but many do not. If a family has a good therapist for their child, then attends this program, the parents might distance themselves from that good therapist. I think the statements in this area should be more conditional instead of declarative (i.e., "If you work with a therapist who . . ." instead of "You probably have encountered therapists who . . ."). This program would be most useful for parents of children with diagnoses like Oppositional Defiant Disorder and Conduct Disorder, but would need some adjusting for a parent of a child whose acting-out behaviors were connected directly to a definite thought disorder, where poor reality-testing is a major factor. For parents of children who have extreme behavior problems and no psychotic processes, the parents would likely benefit significantly from this program, as an adjunct to therapy that also aims at strengthening family role definitions, boundaries, and responsibility-taking.
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