Attachment-Based Family Therapy for Depressed Adolescents

Attachment-Based Family Therapy (ABFT) is the only empirically supported family therapy model designed to treat adolescent depression. This book describes clinical strategies for therapists, as well as the theoretical basis of the approach and the evidence base that supports it.

ABFT emerges from interpersonal theories that suggest adolescent depression and suicide can be precipitated, exacerbated, or buffered against by the quality of interpersonal relationships in families. ABFT aims to repair interpersonal ruptures and rebuild an emotionally protective, secure-based, parent-child relationship. The treatment initially focuses on repairing or strengthening attachment and then turns to promoting adolescent autonomy.

In particular, the authors delineate five treatment phases, or ＂tasks,＂ which each have distinct goals and strategies. Thus, while the model is trauma-focused and process-oriented, it includes a structure and a clear roadmap for facilitating the reparative process. The chapters blend empirical research with clinical guidance, illustrative vignettes, and a case study.

With its unique emphasis on the depressed adolescent’s need for attachment and autonomy, this book will show family therapists how to create in-session, corrective attachment experiences where adolescents seek -- and parents provide -- love and support.

Guy S. Diamond, PhD, is an associate professor of psychology in the Department of Psychiatry in the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and the director of the Center for Family Intervention Science at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. In 2014, he will move the Center for Family Intervention Science to Drexel University’s College of Nursing and Health Professions. At Drexel University, he will also become the director of the Couples and Family Therapy Doctoral Program and establish the Attachment-Based Family Therapy (ABFT) Training Program.

Gary M. Diamond, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and associate professor in the Department of Psychology at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beer Sheva, Israel. His research focuses on the processes and outcomes of family-based treatments. He is particularly interested in the therapeutic alliance, emotional processing, and the development and testing of family therapy for lesbian/gay/bisexual individuals and their parents.

Suzanne A. Levy, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist and director of the ABFT Training Program at Drexel University’s College of Nursing and Health Professions. Prior to this, she was the training director and a clinical child psychologist at the Center for Family Intervention Science at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She conducts ABFT training workshops and supervision for therapists involved in the center’s clinical trials, as well as therapists both nationally and internationally. She has presented regionally, nationally, and internationally on ABFT, emotion coaching, child and adolescent therapies, adolescent depression, adolescent development, and adolescent substance use.