Assessing and Treating Suicidal Thinking and Behaviors in Children and Adolescents : A Play Therapy Guide for Mental Health Professionals in Clinical and School-based Settings

Assessing and Treating Suicidal Thinking and Behaviors in Children and Adolescents is a guide to working with children and young people who present with either obvious or hidden suicidal thoughts, preoccupations, or plans.

Chapters explore a range of treatment approaches and focus on how to support parents, caregivers, families, and schools. Expressive therapies are highlighted, but the chapters also cover evidence-based models such as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT), and prescriptive play therapy.

Expressive therapists, school-based counselors, and other clinicians who work with at-risk children and adolescents from diverse communities and backgrounds will come away from this book with the tools they need to integrate the individual child’s capabilities, sources of distress, and internal and external resources in order to build a developmentally sensitive treatment plan.

Leslie W. Baker is the CEO and owner of Therapy2Thrive® Ruby Hill Marriage and Family Counseling Center, an outpatient clinic in California.

Mary Ruth Cross is the CEO and owner of Treehouse Family Counseling Services, an outpatient clinic focused on play therapy treatment with children and families.