Traditional therapy can often be an off-putting experience for boys as it is in direct opposition to the ways they generally interact and connect with others. This book explores a variety of creative approaches that professionals can use to enhance the clinical experience and better reach their young male clients. Chapters discuss the theory behind and implementation of various creative approaches to therapy with boys, such as play therapy, including sports, movement, and gross-motor activity; animal-assisted therapy; the use of video games and computers; the use of superheroes in role play, metaphor, and play therapy; and art therapy. Attention is also given to methods for working with several subgroups of boys that require specialized treatment approaches, including gender variant and sexual minority boys and boys with ADHD. The first book of its kind, mental health professionals will find this a comprehensive and highly valuable text to help them understand, help, and support boys and their development.

About the Author

Craig Haen, MA, RDT, CGP, LCAT is Assistant Clinical Director for Andrus Children's Center, in Yonkers, NY, and has a private practice working with children, adolescents, adults and families in White Plains. He serves as Adjunct Faculty at Manhattanville College where he oversees the Concentration in Drama Therapy and is co-chair of the American Group Psychotherapy Association's Child and Adolescent Special Interest Group.

Reviews

"My favorite books are those that challenge my structured beliefs, stretch my comfort zone, ignite my curiosity, and elicit actions and reactions! Such is Haen's new edited book on therapy with boys. Chapter after chapter there are insights, guidance, and creative ways of inviting youngsters to become invested in their own therapy process. This is a great compilation of topics from an array of smart, experienced, and gifted professionals. I learned a lot, I felt inspired, and I can't wait to implement some of the innovative ideas in my work." Eliana Gil, PhD, Gil Center for Healing and Play, Virginia, USA

"Boys are fantastic in their variety. Engaging Boys in Treatment is equally magnificent through timely and creative reconsiderations of therapeutic approaches to boyhood's multiplicity." Ken Corbett, PhD, author, Boyhoods: Rethinking Masculinities

"Masses of innovative ideas, stacks of references for further exploration, a brilliant book." - Play for Life, Summer 2011

",,,useful to all counsellors and psychotherapists trying to engage boys in treatment. As well as offering interesting suggestions and ideas for gaining the trust of boys, the book also examines some interesting theoretical contexts surrounding various problems and dilemmas, which I found informative and helpful." - Judith Sonnenberg, Counselling Children and Young People

'This volume, and indeed the whole series, is a valuable addition to an important and ongoing depate. At a time when parents and politicians alike are demonising the young as 'hoodie' wearing, binge drinking looters, and self righteously engaging in rhetoric about 'moral decay' it is as important as ever that efforts continue to be made to understand children in ways which are playful, accepting, curious and empathic...[the book] is exploratory, discursive and thought-provoking." - John Robertson, Play Therapy

Book Information
ISBN 9780415874069
Author Craig Haen
Format Paperback
Page Count 346
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 476g