Child-Friendly Therapy:
Biopsychosocial Innovations for Children and Families

Marcia B. Stern

Overview – Table of Contents

Psychologist and family therapist Marcia Stern presents a playful and creative family-centered treatment for today's kids. She uses a biopsychosocial perspective to provide a framework for intervention not only across several therapeutic domains, but also across home and school environments. Her approach results in rapid and long-lasting gains with children who may have social problems, interpersonal difficulties, learning disabilities, or suffer from a spectrum of related psychiatric problems, including internalizing and/or externalizing disorders.

The therapy described in Child-Friendly Therapy helps the family understand the child's difficulties from multiple perspectives and leads to fresh understandings of often- misunderstood children. Family-members work as a team, strategizing and collaborating in a child-friendly, systemically informed treatment. Action-oriented techniques are emphasized, which engage family members through right-brain learning, and include visual imagery, metaphor, and imaginative play. The child is recognized as a person in and of him- or herself, is actively engaged, and becomes a protagonist who learns in the presence of and along with the family.

This lively informative book is filled with case examples, useful innovative tools, multisensory skill-building activities, as well as practical suggestions for setting up the therapy room and organizing sessions. Child-Friendly Therapy is an essential guide for all clinicians who work with children.

Acclaim for Child Friendly Therapy

'Child-Friendly Therapy provides a powerful integration of the biological and psychosocial dimensions of work with children and families. It is a treasure trove of highly creative and fun methods that will engage even the most resistant children. Marcia Stern gives us the tools we need to promote empathy, personal responsibility, and better communication in families. Page after page is filled with useful information and suggestions. It is a book that should be read by every therapist who works with children.'
- Ellen F. Wachtel, Ph.D.,
Author of Treating Troubled Children and Their Families

'This book achieves a masterful integration of science and creativity rarely found in one single text. Dr. Stern provides substance and technique congruent with her belief that therapist and client can utilize left and right hemispheres of the brain to produce powerful therapeutic changes. This book is truly informative and stimulating.'
- Eliana Gil, Ph.D.,
Inova Kellar Center, Fairfax, VA

About the Author

Marcia Stern, Psy.D., is a psychologist, family therapist, and international workshop leader. She is on the faculties at Ackerman Institute for the Family and New York University Child Study Center, and is a clinical assistant professor at the NYU School of Medicine.Collaborating with the Unique Minds Project, she authored the Unique Minds Program for Children with Learning Disabilities and their Families (manual with videotape available from Norton, ISBN 0-967-33050-5).

ISBN: 0-393-70355-X
February, 2002
Hardcover, 380 pages