Raising Parents ― Attachment, Representation and Treatment

Helping troubled parents to raise their children adequately is of crucial importance for parents, their children and society at large. Distressed parents have themselves often been endangered and, as a consequence, sometimes endanger their children either through maltreatment or through the effects of parental psychiatric disorder.

Raising Parents explains how that happens and clusters parents in terms of the psychological processes that result in maladaptive childrearing. The book then delineates DMM Integrative Treatment in terms of assessment, formulation, and treatment. New formulations are offered for problems that have resisted treatment and cases demonstrate how the ideas can be applied in real treatment settings. The book closes with 10 suggestions for improving professionals’ responses to troubled families and endangered children.

This edition of Raising Parents introduces DMM Integrative Treatment and demonstrates how to use it with vulnerable families. DMM Integrative Treatment is an interpersonal process and this book will be essential reading for clinicians from all disciplines, including psychiatry and psychology, social work, nursing and all types of psychotherapy.

Patricia Crittenden works cross-culturally as a developmental psychopathologist at the Family Relations Institute, Miami, USA. She is founding Chair of the International Association for the Study of Attachment and Adjunct Associate Professor in Dalhousie University's Department of Psychiatry, Canada. She has held university appointments in Finland, Italy, and Australia as well as in the USA. She received a career achievement award for "Outstanding Contributions to the Field of Child and Family Development" from the European Family Therapy Association in 2004. Dr Crittenden has published widely in the field, with her most recent book beingAttachment and Family Therapy and a forthcoming book entitled Loving and Learning: Promoting Attachment Through Baby Play.