Lessons from the lion's den

"Lessons From the Lion's Den is a compassionate and inspirational guidebook for clinicians working with hard-to-reach emotionally disturbed children and their families. Nancy Cotton introduces a comprehensive approach to therapeutic management, outlining specific actions to apply to daily situations and behavioral crises." "The author explains how this approach can help children and their families learn more adaptive ways of coping with strong feelings daily developmental challenges, wounds from the past, and biological vulnerabilities - and she shows how to involve families in this process. She also offers empathy, understanding, and insight for the milieu workers, therapists, nurses, and doctors who work with this difficult population, providing specific techniques and suggestions for mutual support and survival tips to avoid burn-out over long-term service." "Cotton shows how to design and create the vital environmental and interpersonal components of a safe and effective treatment setting. She offers practical guidelines for creating empathic adult-child connections, meaningful communication, and effective discipline systems. She reveals how the environmental components of the treatment context - culture, space, people, and activity schedules - can be designed to contain, engage, and teach relationship-resistant children." "Using clinical vignettes based on actual case studies of six hundred children, Cotton vividly illustrates how to implement specific therapeutic strategies and techniques in a culture of hope, respect, and understanding. An enormously moving clinical guide, filled with warmth, wisdom, honesty, and humor, this book will both inspire and renew the basic dedication of everyone who provides services to damaged and victimized children and their families."--BOOK JACKET.