Working with Parents of Aggressive Children

With youth violence becoming more alarming in its intensity and frequency, Timothy Cavell offers a framework for intervening with aggressive school-age children. Cavell maintains that turning around aggressive tendencies requires therapy that will reestablish the broken bonds between parent and child. His method, called Responsive Parent Therapy, includes the skills training component of common parent training programmes but goes beyond them to support the restructuring of the family itself. The goal of Responsive Parent Therapy is to help parents establish and maintain healthy emotional bonds that will socialize their child. The author shows how therapists can help to rebuild family bonds by addressing parenting goals, family structure and parental self-care. The author also shares empirical findings on the aetiology, behavioural correlates and prognosis for aggressive children and provides information on assessment and diagnosis. Scripts, information sheets, worksheets and tips from Cavell's own extensive clinical experience make this book eminently practical.