Excerpt from Chapter 8: Psychotherapy and Its Side Effects
After you decide to seek professional treatment for your child and find a mental health clinician to work with, you must evaluate the treatment being offered. This chapter, and Chapter 9, provide some basic information about the most commonly used treatments currently available. There are two main categories of standard treatment: psychological (psychotherapy/ talking therapy) and psychopharmacological (pharmacotherapy/ medication). One may be undertaken without the other. However, each offers a different approach to problems. Therefore, especially with more difficult problems, psychological and pharmacological treatment might be used at the same time. If you choose to use the complementary and alternative forms of treatments (neurofeedback, meditation, sensory motor integration, vitamins and nutrition, herbal remedies) before, during, or after treatment with psychotherapy (Chapter 10), tell your child's clinician. If your child is going to be put on conventional medication in addition to psychotherapy, tell the prescribing doctor if your child is on any alternative medicinal, particularly any herbal remedy. There can be harmful consequences if certain conventional and alternative chemical treatments are combined.
Organization of Chapter 8
In this chapter I do the following:
- Provide an overview of psychological treatments and their side effects.
- Address seven common questions that arise for parents about psychological
treatment, including:
- What type of child mental health specialist might be best to provide psychological treatment?
- Which form of psychological treatment might be most helpful?
- What is considered when trying to judge how effective the treatment is and how long to continue?
- What is considered when trying to decide about using medication and psychological treatment together?
More excerpts:
- From the Introduction
- From the Introduction to Section I, Parents' Interventions
- From Chapter 1: What to Do When You Think Your Child Has a Problem
- From Chapter 2: The Red Flags
- From Chapter 4: Ten Steps to Help Your Child Get Back on Track
- From Chapter 5: Coping with Your Feelings When Your Child Suffers
- From the Introduction to Section II: Professional Interventions
- From Chapter 6: Evaluation and Testing, Why, What, Who, and Where?
- From Chapter 7: Questions about the Helpers: Who Are They and Where Are They?
- From Chapter 8: Psychotherapy and Its Side Effects
- From Chapter 9: Medications and Their Side Effects
- From Chapter 11: The Role of Play in Individual Psychotherapy From Childhood to Adolescence
- From Chapter 12: Costs of Treatment: Money, Energy, and Time