For more information on various topics such as ADHD, family issues, common mental health concerns, and relationship/marital problems please take a look at our list of resources below. Organized by topic, you will find a list of books, workbooks, and websites that may be helpful to you and your family. All of these resources have been selected based on the suggestions of our staff and/or other trusted professionals.
Books
Worried No More: Help and Hope for Anxious Children
By Aureen Pinto Wagner, Ph.D
For Parents, School and Healthcare Professionals, this book provides clear and practical strategies for dealing with a variety of anxiety problems including generalized anxiety, separation anxiety and school refusal.
What to Do When Your Child Has Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Strategies and Solutions
By Aureen Pinto Wagner, Ph.D
Another practical book that has clear, easy to understand strategies for dealing with OCD.
The Worried Child: Recognizing Anxiety in Children and Helping Them Heal
By Paul Foxman, Ph.D
Author Paul Foxman believes there are 3 ingredients that contribute to anxiety in children: biological sensitivity, personality, and stress overload. He provides strategies to raise a child’s self-confidence and improve social and self-control skills.
The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook, Fifth edition.
By Edmund J. Bourne, Ph.D
The Fifth edition of this book has the latest anxiety research and information about current medications. It also includes new therapeutic techniques to treat anxiety.
What to Do When Your Brain Gets Stuck: A Kid’s Guide To Overcoming OCD
By Dawn Huebner, Ph.D
This workbook is specifically designed for children to use in therapy or with their parents. The author uses kid-friendly examples to help children understand OCD and specific tasks to help them manage the disorder. There are also workbooks that cover worry, negativity (grumbling), and temper problems.
Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy
By David Burns, M.D.
Eminent psychiatrist, Dr. David Burns, outlines scientifically proven techniques to help develop a positive outlook on life and deal with symptoms of Depression and Anxiety. The book also includes an all new “Consumer’s Guide to Anti-Depressant Drugs.”
The Feeling Good Handbook
By David Burns, M.D.
This is the sequel to “Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy” and discusses techniques and exercises to help overcome depression and anxiety.
10 Best Ever Depression Management Techniques
By Margaret Wehrenberg, Psy.D
Addressing physical, emotional and behavioral symptoms, Dr. Wehrenberg draws on basic brain science to highlight the top 10 depression defeating tips. She also has a book “10 Best Ever Anxiety Management Techniques.”
Websites
Anxiety Coach
Dr. David Carbonell has extensive information about all types of anxiety as well as techniques on how to start dealing with the symptoms. He even has video clips demonstrating breathing techniques to use to decrease anxiety.
National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH)
This website provides free brochures and handouts with information regarding a number of mental health disorders including: Depression, Anxiety, Alcoholism and ADHD.
Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies
This association created a list of self-help books that involve CBT, are scientifically supported, and are consistent with best practices.
Books
Taking Charge of ADHD: The Complete and Authoritative Guide for Parents (Revised Edition)
By Russell Barkley, Ph.D., ABPP, ABCN
From internationally renowned ADHD expert Russell Barkley, this book provides step-by-step behavior management techniques for children, current information on medications and strategies that help children succeed at school and in social situations.
Taking Charge of Adult ADHD
By Russell Barkley Ph.D., ABPP, ABCN
Dr. Barkley, a leading researcher in ADHD, provides step-by-step strategies for managing symptoms and reducing their harmful impact. Specific techniques are presented for overcoming challenges with work, relationships, and finances.
Teenagers with ADHD-A parent’s guide
By Chris Zeigler Dendy
This book discusses the characteristics of ADHD in teenagers and methods for overcoming these difficulties. Throughout the book are the voices of teens, parents, teachers and professionals who describe the peaks and valleys of life with ADHD and provides insight and support.
The ADHD Workbook for Kids: Helping Children gain Self-Confidence, Social Skills and Self-Control
By Lawrence Shapiro
This workbook includes more than forty activities for kids developed by Child Psychologist Lawrence Shapiro. These activities can help your child with ADHD handle everyday tasks, make friends, and build self-esteem.
The ADHD Effect on Marriage: Understand and Rebuild Your Relationship in Six Steps
By Melissa Orlov
This book was awarded “Best Psychology Book of 2010,” by Foreword Reviews. The author discusses specific problems in marriage when one spouse has ADHD such as: nagging, intimacy problems, sudden anger, and memory issues.
Websites
Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (CHAAD)
Phone: 800-233-4050
A nationally renowned advocacy group for people with ADHD. This site offers newsletters and support group listings.
Attention Deficit Disorder Association
Phone: 484-945-2101
An organization dedicated to education, research, and public advocacy related to ADHD.
National Initiative for Children’s Healthcare Quality (NICHQ)
Phone: 617-754-4900
NICHQ is an organization striving to improve healthcare for children by offering training, support, educational materials, and data to professionals and organizations. It also has an ADHD toolkit available for professionals.
Websites
PsychCentral
This website is one of the oldest mental health websites. It provides solid information about a wide range of issues including fairly detailed information about Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): what CBT is, how it works, and evidence that it is helpful with a wide range of problems.
NIMH
The National Institute of Mental Health’s website provides a wide range of information about mental health concerns, including information about CBT.
The Academy of Cognitive Therapy
This site was developed by some of the leading experts in the field of CBT. It offers information about CBT was well as a list of recommended readings on cognitive behavioral therapy (self-help books for a wide range of problems). This site also offers specific resources for children and adolescents.
The Beck Institute
Aaron Beck is considered the father of Cognitive Therapy by many. The Beck Institute website provides resources, information on training, and other information about CBT. This site is useful in that it provides a good deal of information about CBT. The section, FAQs, is particularly useful in answering common questions about CBT.
Books
Helping Your Kids Cope with Divorce-The Sandcastles Way
By M. Gary Neuman
Based on Gary Neuman’s successful Sandcastles program, this book addresses many of the issues facing families going through a divorce. The book describes, by age group, how to tell your child about the divorce, how to help them express their feelings, and when your child needs a therapist.
Raising a thinking Preteen
By Myrna B. Shure, Ph.D
In her best-selling “Raising a Thinking Child”, Myrna Shure introduced her nationally acclaimed “I can problem-solve” program. This book teaches children between 8 and 12 years old how to think through problems and make decisions on their own.
Helping Your Socially Vulnerable Child: What to Do When Your Child is Shy, Socially Anxious, Withdrawn, or Bullied.
By Andrew B. Eisen and Linda B. Engler
This book provides coping tools and social skill strategies that you can tailor to your child’s unique social and emotional needs.
1-2-3 Magic: Effective Discipline for Children 2-12.
By Thomas Phelan, Ph.D.,
The revised edition of this award winning book addresses the difficult task of child discipline with humor, keen insight, and proven experience.
When Parents Disagree and What You Can Do About It: How to Raise Great Kids While You Strengthen Your Marriage
By: Dr. Ron Taffel
This book provides a down to earth discussion of the challenges of parenting, and focuses on the challenging issue of parental disagreements, and how to manage them. We particularly like this books emphasis on the importance of parents working together.
Parenting by Heart: How to stay connected to your child in a disconnected world
By: Dr. Ron Taffel
We like this book because it emphasizes the importance of parents staying connected with their children and teens. It also offers thoughtful and practical recommendations to parents.
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The Explosive Child: A New Approach for Understanding and Parenting Easily Frustrated, Chronically Inflexible Children
By: Ross Greene, PhD
This book details Greene’s innovative approach to working with children (and teens) who are extremely defiant and prone to explosive outbursts. Greene conceptualizes these children’s difficulties as reflecting weakness in skills and focuses on how to best help these children by working to strengthen their skills and by modifying the expectations that parents and others often place on them.
Websites
American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
On the “Facts for Families,” link on this website, you can download concise, up-to-date information on issues that affect, children, teenagers and their families.
Kids Health
This site has been developed by the Nemours Health System, a non-for profit healthcare system. It offers a variety of resources on a very wide range of topics including emotional and behavioral concerns, physical health, parenting concerns, and just about any topic related to children and teens. Each article has been reviewed by a physician or psychologist.
Pandemic Parenting
For Parents, School and Healthcare Professionals, this website provides resources and webinars for dealing with a variety of parenting concerns amidst a global pandemic.
Ron Taffel, Ph.D.
This is the website of Ron Taffel, Ph.D. Dr. Taffel has written a number of books on parenting, teens and children. While the site itself is limited it lists Dr. Taffel’s book. We particularly recommend the books listed above.
Ross Greene, Ph.D.
1. CPS Connection
The first website details Ross Greene, Ph.D.,’s Collaborative Problem Solving model, which is the approach he recommends for working with non-complaint and explosive children. This innovative model views problem behaviors as reflecting a lack of skills and abilities and focuses on how to help children develop ways to solve problems and respond to demands. This model focuses on skill building and the modification of parental expectations rather than on the use of rewards and punishments.
2. Happily Family
The second site provides a link to a talk by Dr. Greene in which he details his understanding of explosive non-compliant children, and lays out his collaborative problem solving model.
Books
The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work
By John Gottman, Ph.D
Psychologist John Gottman has spent over 20 years studying what makes a marriage last. He discusses each principle in depth with case examples from his research. He also includes self-assessment exercises and strategies to help strengthen your marriage.
Why Marriages Succeed or Fail . . . and How You Can Make Yours Last.
By John Gottman, Ph.D
This book guides you through a series of self-tests designed to determine what kind of marriage you have, your strengths and weaknesses and specific actions to take to help your marriage.
The New Rules of Marriage: What You Need To Know To Make Love Work.
By Terrence Real
Terrence Real shows women how to master the new rules of the 21st century by offering them effective tools to help them create the truly intimate relationship they desire. He identifies 5 non-starters to avoid and shares practical strategies for bringing honesty, passion, and joy back to even the most difficult relationship.
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Hold Me Tight: Seven Conversations for a Lifetime of Love
by Sue Johnson, Ph.D.,
This book details Johnson’s approach for understanding and resolving couples’ problems. Johnson focuses on how couples get stuck in negative patterns of interaction, and how they can extricate themselves from these cycles. Johnson relies on Attachment Theory to help understand why couples become stuck in dysfunctional and problematic patterns that damage their relationships.
Books
The Explosive Child: A New Approach for Understanding and Parenting Easily Frustrated, Chronically Inflexible Children
By Ross W. Greene
Dr. Ross Greene is a distinguished researcher and clinician in the treatment of kids with extreme emotional and behavioral problems. In his book, he discusses how these children are not attention-seeking or manipulative, but instead are lacking some crucial skills in the areas of flexibility/adaptability, frustration tolerance and problem-solving and, therefore, require a different approach to parenting.
The Challenging Child
By Stanley Greenspan, M.D.
Child Psychiatrist, Dr. Stanley Greenspan, describes ways to understand, raise and enjoy the five “difficult,” types of children: the Highly Sensitive Child; the Self-Absorbed Child; the Defiant Child; the Inattentive Child and the Active/Aggressive Child.
Setting Limits with your Strong-Willed Child: Eliminating Conflict by Establishing Clear, Firm, and Respectful Boundaries.
By Robert MacKenzie, Ed.D
For the family with a high level of parent-child conflict, this book will help you understand and empathize without giving in, hold your ground without threatening, remove deadly power struggles and give clear, firm messages that your child respects.
Your Defiant Child: Eight Steps to Better Behavior
By Russell Barkley and Christine Benton
This book clearly explains what causes defiance, when it becomes a problem and how it can be resolved. The 8-step program stresses consistency and cooperation, promoting changes through a system of praise, rewards and mild punishment.
Try and Make Me: Simple Strategies That Turn Off the Tantrums and Create Cooperation
By Roy Levy, Bill O’Hanlon and Tyler Norris Goode
The authors are family therapists who provide clear and easy to understand advice on how to deal with your child’s tantrums.
The Defiant Child: A Parent’s Guide to Oppositional Defiant Disorder
By Dr. Douglas A. Riley
In this book, Dr. Riley, a Child and Adolescent Psychologist, teaches parents how to recognize the signs, understand the attitudes, and modify the behavior of their oppositional child.
American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
On the “Facts for Families,” link on this website, you can download concise, up-to-date information on issues that affect, children, teenagers, and their families.
The American Academy of Pediatrics
The American Academy of Pediatrics site, which includes tips and strategies for helping parents support their children and adolescents in coping with the current Pandemic.
The Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds
This educational site offers a variety of resources including a discussion of Mindfulness and other strategies that children, teens and parents can use to help them cope with the current pandemic. This site offers a wealth of educational material on mental health issues for children, teens and families.
Department of Psychiatry at the University of Massachusetts
The website of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Massachusetts provides multiple guides for parents and children. The site stresses that their effort is to offer practical strategies for children, teens and families to help them cope with the current Pandemic.
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Phone: 866-615-6464
A major, national institute for research and funding that offers a Web page for the public containing a link to information on many mental health issues including: Depression, Anxiety, and ADHD.
Mayo Clinic
This website provides a comprehensive overview of psychological disorders including symptoms, causes, and recommended treatment approaches.
National Institute for Health’s Website for Alcohol Related Issues
This website contains information on alcohol abuse and free booklets about alcohol use and strategies for cutting down or quitting alcohol use.
Wide Open School
For those looking for more educationally focused activities and materials this site can be helpful. It also includes brief videos on gratitude and mindfulness that are suitable for children. While the link specifies a grade level, this site has materials for preschools through high schoolers.