Emotion-Regulating Play Thereapy with ADHD Children: Staying With Playing

Drawing upon contemporary psychoanalytic thought, attachment theory, and the literature on children’s emotional development, this book not only offers a novel conceptualization of ADHD but also a sophisticated and practical set of ideas for adapting play therapy to effectively treat it. It articulates an approach to understanding and helping ADHD children that expands and augments even as it challenges the usual neurocognitive and medicalized perspectives. The reader will appreciate the value of an energetic play process with ADHD children, encounter justifications for the therapist’s liberal use of authentic self-expression and judicious mentoring for socialization purposes, be prompted to think differently about the role of interpretation and mutual enactment in child work, and locate guidelines for working supportively and caringly with parents. The book contains ample, lucid case descriptions and clinical vignettes to ground and enrich the reader’s understanding of concepts and techniques. It is an essential read for mental health professionals, researches, educators and parents wishing to enlarge their understanding of ADHD.

Enrico Gnaulati, PhD, is a former faculty member in the Child and Family Studies Department at California State University, Los Angeles. Dr. Gnaulati maintains a private practice in Pasadena, California and is a frequent public speaker on child development and parenting issues.