The selection for the April meeting of my Play Therapy Book Club (voted on my members of my Facebook group) isn't a typical play therapy book.
But it is an invaluable resource for any clinician that is working with children and families (which means that it is relevant to all of my play therapist colleagues).
Here are some summarized highlights from our live discussion of this book.
It's short, but jammed packed with information
At about 90 pages, When Parents Are At War can easily be read in less than a week. Clinicians commented that they liked the length because it was long enough to give you detailed information about their clinical practice without taking a lot of free time away from their work.
The chapters can easily be reviewed during missed appointments or no-shows and then the clinician has time to think about the concepts and integrate them.
The book is short, but you will use the time saved reading on implementation of the principles in the book.
A Step-By-Step Guide for Updating Your Clinical Forms
The beauty of this book is that it guides you through every aspect of your clinical practice to help you improve how you work with divorced families right from the very first phone call.
Lynn Louise Wonders provides tips for taking phone calls from parents, screening for red (and yellow) flags, setting appropriate boundaries and establishing neutrality and fairness during initial phone calls.
She then helps you establish rock-solid informed consents, intake protocols and office procedures that will help you feel more comfortable in taking those high-conflict cases that you might have felt overwhelmed with in the past.
These guiding principles continue throughout treatment plan development, progress notes, handling court appearances and termination. Honestly, a lot of the things that she recommends I already do (and I was able to give myself a big pat on the back for that).
But, she thinks of things that I had overlooked.
One of those being her termination recommendations.
I am currently updating my own consent forms with her termination and closure recommendations (once you read it, you can let me know if you plan to do it too).
This Book Uses Family Friendly Language
The other thing I love about this book is that Lynn Louise Wonders understands that this is a difficult situation for everyone involved.
Her focus is on helping the child, but she does not demonize parents in any way. Her language is respectful, empathetic and caring.
She even provides some sample scripts to help guide you with some words to say when in difficult situations.
Lynn Louise Wonders is able to explain the range of divorced parents that you may work with in a way that is relatable. And instead of scaring you away from working with this population, she provides helpful and practical tools that allow you to do this work with competence.
Overall, I think your clinical practice will benefit from applying the information that you learn. Now, I'm off to finish updating my consent form with that termination language.
If you want grab a copy for yourself, it is available on Amazon (no affiliate links, just sharing resources).
And if you want to join the Play Therapy Book Club, then you have two options:
- Join my Facebook Group (for mental health professionals only). This is where we vote on books! OR
- Subscribe to my mailing list so that you are notified of the next book and meeting date. We meet quarterly right now, so the next meeting will be in July!
- Oh, and it's all free (except for the book, of course).
And if reading isn't your thing, Lynn Louise Wonders has an online course on my website called Play Therapy with High Conflict Custody Cases, that you might like instead. You can check that out here.
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