Book review: Attachment-based clinical work with children and adolescents (2013)

Book Summary: Attachment-Based Clinical Work with Children and Adolescents (Essential Clinical Social Work Series) (2013)

This book gives a comprehensive run through of attachment from birth through to adolescence. There is a balance of research and clinical case examples. Reading the book gave me a good reminder of undergraduate psychology courses as well as a few ideas for clinical practice.

My Psychological Perspective:
Understanding attachment became exceedingly important when I began to work with children and adolescents in the public health sector. Some areas were well described by the authors, for example, Transmission gaps, that are discussed explores to when attachments don't match between child and caregiver. But other areas were muddy.
I remember learning about these theories surrounding attachment (e.g. separation-individuation, object constancy, attachment styles) years ago, but the book was able to summarize quite well using references to well known research studies, examples and case studies.
There are also things I would definitely consider more of in clinical practice after reading the book including: the use of video recording to review interactions, viewing trauma through an attachment lens, giving a traumatic event a narrative, and investigating systems more.
The authors gave brief introductions to a range of therapies including circle of security, trauma focused attachment psychotherapy. I have my reservations regarding Dance therapy/ wilderness therapy/ group play therapy, which I don't have much knowledge of but the authors were able to illustrate the use of these techniques for a basic overview.

My Christian Perspective:

At various points in the bible, God is referred to as an attachment figure. For example, Isaiah 66:13  talks about how God will comfort us just as a mother comforts a child. While this analogy works well for those with a secure attachment, those with disrupted attachments can be quite uncomfortable with this. I think the book is also useful for those of us who are trying to figure out our relationship with God. We can somewhat try to understand within the attachment framework how and why we respond to God in different ways.

My overall rating: 

Good

This is a reasonable resource I would expect in any university library but certainly not a reference I would need to turn to frequently. I thought the book was a hybrid to match the needs of an early academic (undergraduate) and clinical audience. The mix of research evidence and clinical case studies provided greater insights into the understanding of attachment in adolescence and childhood. However, this is certainly not a book that can be digested in one setting, it's wordy, and in a few chapters, the key themes were lost among citations. It would teach you how to do attachment therapy, but it will certainly wet your appetite. 

Attachment-Based Clinical Work with Children and Adolescents (Essential Clinical Social Work Series) is available now through Amazon and  Springer.

I was provided a review copy of Attachment-Based Clinical Work with Children and Adolescents (Essential Clinical Social Work Series) by the publisher but was in no way paid for writing this review.