Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pages: 170
•
Trim: 6⅜ x 9¼
978-1-4422-3181-8 • Hardback • May 2014 • $119.00 • (£92.00)
978-1-4422-3666-0 • Paperback • February 2018 • $41.00 • (£35.00) - Currently out of stock. Copies will arrive soon.
978-1-4422-3182-5 • eBook • May 2014 • $39.00 • (£30.00)
Joshua Ehrlich, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst who works with children, adolescents, and adults in his practice in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He is an adjunct clinical instructor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Michigan as well as a faculty member at the Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Introduction
PART I: DIVORCE AND MOURNING: CHALLENGES FOR CHILDREN AND PARENTS
Chapter 1: The Losses in Divorce
Chapter 2: Mourning
Chapter 3: Failures of Mourning
Chapter 4: Breakdowns in Connection Between Parents and Children Around Divorce
Chapter 5: Entanglement with the Ex-Spouse: Its Impact on Children
Chapter 6: The Effects on Adolescents of Parents’ Difficulties Navigating Divorce
PART II: INTERVENING: HOW THERAPISTS CAN FACILITATE MOURNING
Chapter 7: Bearing Feelings, Facilitating Mourning
Chapter 8: Working with Parents Together to Help Children
Chapter 9: Helping Parents Bridge the Divide with their Children
Chapter 10: Working with the High-Conflict Divorce
Chapter 11: Individual Therapy with Children and Adolescents Dealing with Divorce
Chapter 12: Individual Therapy with Adults
References
About the Author
Parents and children almost always suffer during a divorce. Each member of the family experiences disturbing feelings of separation and loss in the divorce process. Joshua Ehrlich has called upon his extensive clinical experience with the emotional challenges faced by children, adolescents, their adult parents, and their therapists in dealing with the separation and mourning process that always accompanies divorce. Although this book was designed primarily with therapists in mind, it serves as a thoughtful and wonderful addition to the literature and experience that child therapists, adult therapists, mediators, attorneys, and judges call upon when working with families who are experiencing divorce, especially high conflict divorce. I expect to both use and share Ehrlich’s helpful insights and clinical experience, all of which are beautifully distilled in this thoughtful and sharply focused book.
— Elissa P. Benedek M.D., author of How to Help Your Child Overcome Your Divorce
Joshua Ehrlich offers a rich and evocative framework for understanding why and how it can be so hard for people to deal effectively with the pain and loss of divorce. In the context of the operation of defenses that interfere with mourning, he shares with the reader his wide experience of the many forms such troubles take, and suggests effective interventions. This book is an excellent resource for clinicians working with patients of all ages in varied roles and settings.
— Kerry Kelly Novick, Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute, author of “Working with Parents Makes Therapy Work”
Mental health providers searching for a comprehensive text on how to work with families dealing with divorce will find this book invaluable. . . [The author] weaves together in a very comprehensible fashion psychoanalytic concepts with current research to provide a picture of the complexities of divorce and best practices for the field. . . . Overall, therapists searching for a comprehensive primer on assisting clients with divorce will find this book extremely helpful. Ehrlich gracefully interlaces the intricate issues that arise when marriages end with helpful therapeutic suggestions for both adults and children. Replete with poignant clinical vignettes, Ehrlich weaves current thinking from researchers with practical suggestions for clinicians working with divorcing couples and families to produce a text useful to clinicians in the field.
— Omega - Journal of Death and Dying
Divorce and Loss: Helping Adults and Children Mourn When a Marriage Comes Apart, offers an important focus forunderstanding divorce difficulties. . . .[T]he 12 chapters addressvarious issues—stresses between parents and children, entanglements of ex-spouses, andintervention using different treatment formats—Ehrlich analyzes the central problem,regardless of its manifestation. . . .Throughout, the relevant casevignettes presented are helpful. . . .[T]he tight structure and focused content of the book can promote learning, in particular for certain audiences.
— PsycCRITIQUES
Parents and children almost always suffer during a divorce. Each member of the family experiences disturbing feelings of separation and loss in the divorce process. Joshua Ehrlich has called upon his extensive clinical experience with the emotional challenges faced by children, adolescents, their adult parents, and their therapists in dealing with the separation and mourning process that always accompanies divorce. Although this book was designed primarily with therapists in mind, it serves as a thoughtful and wonderful addition to the literature and experience that child therapists, adult therapists, mediators, attorneys, and judges call upon when working with families who are experiencing divorce, especially high conflict divorce. I expect to both use and share Ehrlich’s helpful insights and clinical experience, all of which are beautifully distilled in this thoughtful and sharply focused book.
— Elissa P. Benedek M.D., author of How to Help Your Child Overcome Your Divorce
Joshua Ehrlich offers a rich and evocative framework for understanding why and how it can be so hard for people to deal effectively with the pain and loss of divorce. In the context of the operation of defenses that interfere with mourning, he shares with the reader his wide experience of the many forms such troubles take, and suggests effective interventions. This book is an excellent resource for clinicians working with patients of all ages in varied roles and settings.
— Kerry Kelly Novick, Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute, author of “Working with Parents Makes Therapy Work”
Any therapist who has treated children whose parents are navigating through a stormy divorce or its aftermath knows how challenging such work can be. This book provides a clear road map for therapists working their way through the minefield of rage and sadness that divorcing parents and their children too often experience. Focusing on the theme that intense divorce conflict often flows from problems in mourning the losses that divorce represents, Dr. Ehrlich weaves theory and striking case examples together to provide understanding and specific suggestions that will be enormously helpful to anyone trying to help parents and children achieve a satisfying outcome.
— Peter Ash, MD, Emory University, editor of "Principles and Practice of Child and Adolescent Forensic Mental Health"
Overall, therapists searching for a comprehensive primer on assisting clients
with divorce will find this book extremely helpful. Ehrlich gracefully interlaces
the intricate issues that arise when marriages end with helpful therapeutic suggestions
for both adults and children. Replete with poignant clinical vignettes,
Ehrlich weaves current thinking from researchers with practical suggestions for
clinicians working with divorcing couples and families to produce a text useful to
clinicians in the field.
— Claudia Lingertat-Putnam, The College of Saint Rose