Power and Compassion: Working with Difficult Adolescents and Abused Parents

This book offered some information I wanted, but it was not written for the lay person.

Yes, I've read 5 books cover to cover. I know this book was written for professional counselors, but as a parent who has spent many hours in counselors offices, this book is invaluable. If you're paying attention, when reading this book, you can recognise whether your counselor is helping you, or wasting your time. When parents are honestly being emotionally abused, they need to be told, and supported in their efforts to take "decisive and responsible action to help their children" as Dr. Price says in his book. If I'd had this book a year ago, I would not have wasted time on a psychiatrist who only served as an abusive teen's good buddy. If you are a parent, another good book on this subject is "The Defiant Child" by Dr. Douglas Riley. Riley's book spends some time on younger children, but if your child is 14, it's not too late to put his book to good use. For parents of teenagers, it is really too late for you to buy "The Explosive Child," by Ross W. Greene. Greene's book is great for parents of younger children. I do recommend Gregory Bodenhamer's book "Parent in Control." but to make his ideas work, parents really have to have some backbone and the backing of others and the community. Trouble is that many of us have the problems we have with our children because we had no backbone in the first place, or our authority has been undermined for too long. We need assistance and support, not blame in order to turn things around for our children. I recommend "Power and Compassion" above all five books I've read for defiant children.

The most useful book I've found in 25 years' work with these families, and in families with milder aggression. Kids really get better. Many illustrations help adults understand why they quarrel so much over these kids, and give them real hope and specific tools to guide them wisely. For therapists, parents, and teachers caught in arguments about "tough love/accountability" vs "understanding the cause" strategies, this is a necessary guide about when and how to utilize both strategies, where they are likely to make mistakes.