Routledge Tools for Effective Therapy with Children and Families: A Solution-Focused Approach

Tools for Effective Therapy with Children and Families provides mental health professionals with step-by-step tools and strategies for effective therapeutic outcomes with children and their families. An integration of solution-focused brief therapy and play therapy, this groundbreaking book is uniquely suited to clinicians working with school-aged children and their parents. Tools for Effective Therapy with Children and Families uses clearly articulated and creative play activities to elicit conversations about solutions, successes, and collaborative goals with clients. Session transcripts and technique illustrations throughout the chapters allow clinicians to see the solution-focused approach in action. Review “What a gift! King has written a superb and highly practical book for working with children, their parents, and helping systems professionals. Her book is packed with a plethora of creative and effective interventions, great case examples, and clinical pearls of wisdom. What is particularly noteworthy is King's strengths-based and respectful handling of children who have experienced trauma, which taps into their resilience and empowers them to author new and preferred solution-determined stories for themselves. Whether you are a seasoned or new therapist, this book will make your clinical work with children much more enjoyable and optimize their treatment success.”―Matthew D. Selekman, MSW, LCSW, director, Partners for Collaborative Solutions, Evanston, IL “Tools for Effective Therapy with Children and Families is a wise, thoughtful, beautifully written integration of solution-focused therapy and play therapy that belongs on the book shelf of everyone who works with kids and families! Pamela King offers a generous and inspiring array of clearly described, highly effective therapeutic strategies that readers will be able to immediately utilize in their everyday work.”―Yvonne Dolan, director emeritus, The Institute for Solution-Focused Therapy, Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin “Pam King delivers a cornucopia of practical ideas that can be lifted direct from the page. Her style is full of humour and personal touches, with real-life examples that have us feeling we’re in the same room, watching a skilled clinician at work. She draws upon the wide range of solution-focused and strength-based strategies and shows her gift for drawing on children’s own unique imaginations to develop playful and creative methods.”―Harvey Ratner, co-author, Solution Focused Brief Therapy: 100 Key Points and Techniques and Brief Coaching with Children and Young People; co-founder of BRIEF (UK) “Tools for Effective Therapy with Children and Families is an important contribution to SFBT practice with children and their families. Pam King (with more than twenty years of therapy experience that shows through on every page) creatively blends the principles and skills of play therapy with SFBT practice.  She offers detailed descriptions of play-therapy techniques integrated into rich dialogues of solution building that concretely illustrate every aspect of conducting SFBT sessions. The book is packed with case situations including childhood behavior, school, and trauma concerns. I anticipate readers will be inspired and well equipped to carry King’s blend of skills into their own competency-based practice with children and families.”―Peter De Jong, PhD, MSW, solution-focused therapist, trainer, and consultant; co-author with Insoo Kim Berg, Interviewing for Solutions; emeritus professor, Sociology and Social Work, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI "The book offers step-by-step examples for play therapy interventions from a very respectful, client-centered, child-focused approach. The clear writing, enriched by personal, playful touches helps the case examples come to life for readers, who can then use them in their own practices... This is a needed addition to the literature on play therapy, especially from a solution-focused brief ther