Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Offering a fresh perspective on treatment, this book presents an overarching framework and many specific strategies for working with violent youth and their families. The authors shed light on the complex interplay of individual, family, community, and societal forces that lead some adolescents to hurt others or themselves. Effective ways to address each of these factors in clinical and school settings are discussed and illustrated with evocative case material. The book provides essential guidance on connecting with aggressive teens and their parents and managing difficult situations that are likely to arise. The strengths-based interventions presented are applicable to a broad range of high-risk behaviors, from bullying and assault to substance abuse, self-mutilation, and suicidality.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• I The Model
• 1 Adolescent Violence in a Sociocultural Context
• 2 Devaluation
• 3 Disruption of Community
• 4 The Dehumanization of Loss
• 5 Rage
• II Strategies
• 6 Adolescent Axioms: General Principles for Working with Adolescents
• 7 Counteracting Devaluation
• 8 The Restoration of Community
• 9 Rehumanizing Loss
• 10 Rechanneling Rage Final Reflections

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

In a world caught up in the so-called war on terrorists, society continues to struggle to comprehend the epidemic of youth violence. Illuminating an important issue, Hardy and Laszloffy (both psychotherapists) offer a warm, insightful, and practical guide to helping teens and parents use sociocultural and community interventions to reduce violence. They include case examples to explain factors that foster violence (e.g., devaluation, erosion of community, dehumanized loss, and rage) and to help professionals connect with violent youths and their families. These histories provide compelling examples of how these violent teens felt devalued, disconnected, and enraged. The authors' suggested clinical interventions are aimed at helping teens and their families understand the narcissistic injuries underlying the rage, forge connections with others, and learn ways to express the rage constructively. This book is strong on clinical application and cultural relevance of violence. Absent, however, are an evidence base and evaluative research on the interventions suggested, and discussion of gender and psychopathology. For a more developmental, gendered, and biological perspective of antecedents of violence, readers will be better off with Aggression, Antisocial Behavior, and Violence among Girls, ed. by Martha Putallaz and Karen Bierman (CH, Oct'05, 43-1246). ^BSumming Up: Optional. Comprehensive academic and professional collections; general readers. S. M. Valente University of California, Los Angeles

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Kenneth V. Hardy, PhD, is a professor of family therapy at Syracuse University and is Director of the Eikenberg Institute for Relationships in New York. He is the former Director of the Center for Children, Families, and Trauma at the Ackerman Institute for the Family in New York. Dr. Hardy has provided training and consultation for working with troubled children and youth throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. His work has been featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show, 20/20, Dateline NBC, PBS, and the Discovery Health Channel. Dr. Hardy maintains a private practice in New York.

Tracey A. Laszloffy, PhD, is a relationship therapist who specializes in working with troubled adolescents and their families. Currently she maintains a private practice in Connecticut, and prior to this, she directed the Marriage and Family Therapy master's program at Seton Hill University in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. Dr. Laszloffy has published extensively, and she routinely provides training and consultation to organizations that work with at-risk youth.