Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy

Catalog description

This course introduces students to effective methods in child and adolescent psychotherapy, with a particular focus on convergences and divergences among contemporary techniques. Toward these ends, we will consider therapeutic techniques in terms of the theories in which they are anchored; we will compare and contract behavioral, cognitive-behavioral, psychoanalytic, object-relational, self-psychological, and other approaches, as they are embedded in play-therapy, individual psychotherapy, and parent-guidance techniques. Moreover, we will consider specific therapeutic methods associated with child and adolescent diagnostic presentations; i.e., we will explore the match between assessment/diagnosis and treatment/therapy. Knowledge of developmental psychopathology and changes processes will inform our discussion of the specific techniques employed in psychotherapy with children and adolescents, as well as help us address the multiple contexts of development, family, culture, and therapeutic relationship. This course will include at least six hours of training in multicultural issues and three hours of training in ethical issues.