Description: by Lenore Terr

Praise for Magical Moments of Change:

“Magical Moments of Change reminds us that much of psychotherapy is about storytelling. The storytellers are the children who speak in secret code. Some of them live in phantasmogorical worlds with monsters who continue to chase them. To survive, the children hide, mask themselves, or even take on the guise of their ghouls. The key to these dungeons often requires the skill of the psychotherapist in deciphering and speaking in the 'peer' language of the child's psyche. Terr includes riveting stories from other psychotherapists as well as those from her own extensive work with traumatized children. The children may not find happily-ever-after endings, but in all, they have discovered a secret part of what their story means and can thus take steps into a freer world.” —Amy Tan, author of The Bonesetter’s Daughter and The Joy Luck Club

“I recommend this book to all readers interested in learning more about the treatment of children and their families. It is written in a style that can be understood by both laypeople and professionals. It is an ideal textbook for a class studying agents of therapeutic change. Moreover, it provides us with much of a real interest and much to admire in the magical work of Dr. Lenore Terr.” - APA Division 39 Newsletter

"Magical Moments of Change is beautifully written. In the book Lenore Terr has woven together fascinating stories that are both gripping in themselves but, more important, document that in a world dominated by pharmacotherapy, psychotherapy still works." —George E. Vaillant, MD, Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard University

“This fascinating book illuminates both the art and science of psychotherapy with children and adolescents. Students, practitioners, and parents will all marvel and learn from the therapeutic turning points illustrated in the case vignettes. This process, leading to significant, ‘aha’ moments of therapeutic change, sometimes seems deceptively simple, but really emerges from the intuition, extensive experience, and practice wisdom of the vignette contributors, who constitute a virtual ‘who’s who’ of child and adolescent psychiatrists. Theoretically sound, compelling, and very moving, this book is a magical treasure!” —Nancy Boyd Webb, DSW, BCD, RPT-S, Distinguished Professor of Social Work, James R. Dumpson Chair in Child Welfare Studies, Fordham University

“A nationally regarded master clinician, Lenore Terr has given our field a gift with this book. She integrates 'magical moments'—pivotal snapshots of therapy concisely presented and explained by child psychiatrists—with her own experience and wisdom. The result is a trove of highly creative and courageous therapeutic efforts. Anyone who uses psychotherapy to treat children will enjoy and benefit from reading this book. Even seasoned clinicians will feel a sense of affirmation and be surprised by the number of clinical pearls. What makes psychotherapy with a child so special and meaningful for both the child and the therapist? The answer is in this book.” —Michael S. Jellinek, M.D., Chief, Child Psychiatry Service, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Professor of Psychiatry and of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School

Overview – Contents & Contributors – Excerpt

In 1991, a 29-month-old toddler who acted more animal than human was brought to the office of Lenore Terr, a leading child psychiatrist and one of the world’s foremost experts on childhood trauma. This “feral” child” had been hideously abused, and even worse, had witnessed her baby sister’s murder. Her foster parents told the doctor they could only come to San Francisco once a month. Would such a growling, spitting, battling little person ever improve?

A 15-year journey between Terr and the virtually destroyed young patient takes us step by step through the miraculous ways children change. How do these kinds of personal transformations happen? For that matter, what causes an apathetic adolescent boy to find new purpose to his life? Or a timid, withholding school-age girl to suddenly accept a relationship with a psychiatrist? Why should a teenager who had just been slogging along in psychotherapy suddenly show a rapid improvement? Are these turnarounds related to therapy? And if so, how?

Weaving the suspenseful story of her “wild child” patient into shorter, but equally true tales of other troubled young people, Terr seeks to understand how these “magical moments of change” come about.: How and when does psychotherapy work? What happens to make it work?

To find the answers, Terr calls upon 33 of America’s top child and adolescent psychiatrists, all working in different settings—offices, hospitals, juvenile institutions—to share key moments of dramatic change that they witnessed in their own patients, and to explain how these moments came about. Altogether, 48 cases are presented, each illustrating the marvelous and varied ways psychotherapists help children exhibit positive turnarounds.

Carefully framed by Dr. Terr’s observations and her own understanding of children, Magical Moments of Change is divided into four parts—(1) Using the Professional Persona, (2) Creating the “Right” Atmosphere, (3) “Getting” the Child, and (4) Reacting in a Timely, Pungent Fashion. While integrating in her own and other psychiatrists’ cases, in each section Terr probes the mysteries behind the progress that young people make, opening up a treasure trove of life-changing scenarios and potent techniques. Rarely, if ever, have so many good ways of working with children been explored in one place at one time.

Whether laughably simple and inadvertent, or the result of an intense crescendo of treatment, the moments of change that Terr describes provides anyone who works with or cares for children valuable insights into just what can trigger a transformation. What we are left with is not only a deeper understanding of the mechanics of youthful change, but a more confident approach to inducing turnabouts in our own children.

About the Author

Lenore Terr, M.D., clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California San Francisco and in private practice, is a pioneer in the field of childhood trauma. The winner of numerous honors and awards, she is the author of Too Scared to Cry, Unchained Memories, and Beyond Love and Work. Dr. Terr has been a a featured expert on numerous television programs, including Oprah, 60 Minutes, 20/20, Dateline, 48 Hours, Charlie Rose, The Today Show, as well as on CNN, CBS, and NBC National News, BBC News, CBC News, and on radio programs worldwide.

304 pages pages / hardcover

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