Working with Parents Makes Therapy Work - by Kerry Kelly Novick & Jack Novick (Paperback)

About the Book

Basing their work on the idea that psychoanalytic therapy and technique require more rather than less from the therapist, the Novicks explore the crucial role of parents' work in child and adolescent treatment. They show that child and adolescent therapies have two goals_restoring the child to progressive development and rebuilding the parent-child relationship as a lifelong resource. With vivid clinical examples, this book illustrates the expanded range of clinical techniques used with parents to establish an alliance at each phase of treatment.

Book Synopsis

Working With Parents Makes Therapy Work demonstrates the crucial role of parent work in child and adolescent therapy. The Novicks suggest that restoring the parent-child relationship contributes to long-lasting therapeutic change in children and adolescents. With a multitude of vivid clinical examples, the authors provide a practical guide to clinical techniques for integrating parent work with individual child and adolescent treatment. Working With Parents Makes Therapy Work demonstrates that parents and therapists can form a strong alliance to support the child's healthy development. Kerry and Jack Novick apply their revised models of the therapeutic alliance and two systems of self-regulation to help parents from evaluation to termination and beyond. The book covers a wide range of situations, for instance, work with fathers, addressing problems of divorce and diverse family structures, and many modes of communicating with parents. Family secrets and loyalty conflicts; what happens when parents are troubled; the importance of parents in the lives of teenagers-these are all discussed in detail. Privacy and secrecy are defined and differentiated to clarify the meaning and importance of genuine confidentiality.

Review Quotes

Working with Parents Makes Therapy Work by Kerry and Jack Novick is an extraordinarily important contribution. Their work effectively counters the decades-old resistance to caring work with parents by child and adolescent psychoanalysts and psychotherapists. Their work underscores the inevitable ongoing interaction between parent functioning and child development.--Leon Hoffman M.D., New York Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, coauthor of the Manual of Regulation-Focused Psychotherapy for Children (RFP-C) with Externalizing Behaviors

Working With Parents Makes Therapy Work is a rare book. It is a book on a subject that is almost never written about in psychoanalysis. This is also a rare book for another reason: while it makes no extravagant claims, it quietly turns the traditional way of thinking about parent work in child analysis on its head. For this reason especially, all child analysts should read it and consider its message. This book has an interesting mix of practical advice and theoretical ideas. It is useful for clinicians at all levels of experience. A new and thoughtful look at how we work with the families of the children we treat is most refreshing and long overdue. This view is especially relevant since it is based on years of clinical practice by two excellent clinicians.-- "Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association"

A comprehensive, reader friendly and exceptionally informative guide for properly identifying and contributing to a healthy parent-child relationship for the potential and long-lasting benefit of the child in a therapeutic pursuit. Supplying an expansively illustrative content of examples, studies, in-depth detailing, Working with Parents Makes Therapy Work covers diverse but common situations. Vitally important reading for counselors and psychotherapists working with families in clinical settings, Working with Parents Makes Therapy Work is also very highly recommended for the struggling parents of struggling children and teens for its invaluable and accessible contribution of helpful insights and general content.-- "The Bookwatch"

For far too long parents have been denied their rightful place as partners in therapeutic work on behalf of their children. The Novicks advocate unequivocally for their inclusion when working with children of every age and in every phase of development. There is much to be learned from their model and the many clinical illustrations they provide in this invaluable contribution to a neglected area of practice.--Denia Barrett, Editor, Child Analysis: Clinical, Theoretical, and Applied

In Working with Parents Makes Therapy Work, psychoanalysts Jack and Kerry Kelly Novick offer a theoretically rigorous yet highly practical and intuitively appealing framework for involving parents meaningfully in their children's therapy. One of this volume's many strengths lies in its use of numerous salient and well-crafted clinical illustrations derived from the authors' extensive clinical and supervisory experience. It also offers further elaboration and new applications of the Novicks' earlier research on the "two-systems" model. Indeed, because the work is so well written, one nearly loses sight of the fact that it represents a bold new vision of the role of parents in the psychoanalytic treatment of child and adolescent patients.--Jerrold R. Brandell, Ph.D., Wayne State University School of Social Work; author of Psychodynamic Social Work

The book is a highly practical treatise on techniques to involve parents meaningfully in their child's therapy.--Elissa P. Benedek M.D., author of How to Help Your Child Overcome Your Divorce "Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic: A Journal for the Mental Health Professions"

The Novicks have offered us a significant volume....This book is an important addition to the literature and can be a resource for child therapists at all levels of experience.-- "Psychologist - Psychoanalyst"

This book represents a turning point in our child psychiatry practice which legitimizes a shift that many of us have adopted clinically several years ago. It should be read, discussed and improved upon by all child and adolescent practictioners.--2008, Vol 17 No. 2, pp97-99 "Canadian Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry"

Working With Parents Makes Therapy Work is a rare book. It is a book on a subject that is almost never written about in psychoanalysis. This is also a rare book for another reason: while it makes no extravagant claims, it quietly turns the traditional way of thinking about parent work in child analysis on its head. For this reason especially, all child analysts should read it and consider its message. This book has an interesting mix of practical advice and theoretical ideas. It is useful for clinicians at all levels of experience. A new and thoughtful look at how we work with the families of the children we treat is most refreshing and long overdue. This view is especially relevant since it is based on years of clinical practice by two excellent clinicians..-- "Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association"

About the Author

Kerry Kelly Novick and Jack Novick are child, adolescent, and adult psychoanalysts on the faculty of the Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute. They have been working with children and families for 35 years and joined other colleagues to found a non-profit psychoanalytic school, Allen Creek Preschool, in Ann Arbor. Both Jack and Kerry Novick have written extensively. Their first book, Fearful Symmetry: The Development and Treatment of Sadomasochism, appeared in 1996.