Eliana Gil addresses both the symptoms and the underlying precipitating issues of child abuse and neglect and offers new ideas for effective treatment. Gil identifies the conditions that are often present when child abuse occurs and outlines the protective factors that can counteract an individual's tendency toward child maltreatment. Without absolving the offender of full responsibility, the author recommends an approach to treatment that involves all family members who may inadvertently contribute to the maintenance of problem behaviors through acts of omission or commission.

A direct, informed approach involving all family members
An invaluable guide for enhancing your skills when working with families in which child abuse has occurred. Systemic Treatment of Families Who Abuse addresses both the symptoms and precipitating issues of child abuse and neglect, and also

• offers new ideas for effective treatment
• identifies the conditions that are often present when child abuse occurs
• outlines the protective factors that can counteract a person's tAndency toward child abuse

The author discusses how the treatment of child abuse differs from generic treatment, and stresses the necessity for systemic interventions for everyone: abusers, abused, and nonabused family members.

Review
"Replete with case examples, Eliana Gil's straightforward, no nonsense guide to treating some of society's most dangerous family interactions is a valuable resource to all clinicians who work with child abuse.'' —Marcia Sheinberg, director of training, Ackerman Institute for Family Therapy, and director, Ackerman Incest Project

“This book is well-written and well-illustrated with clinical case material.” —Benjamin E. Saunders, Ph.D., National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center, Medical University of South Carolina

“With its clear, practical style, this is an unusually useful book for clinicians at any level of skill, the next best thing to an experienced supervisor or colleague. Gil does an extraordinary job of integrating theory, research, and case examples in an area of clinical practice that can easily be intimidating. The book's particular strength lies in its skillful blAnd of narative and clinical dialogue, in which the therapist's voice is consistently empathetic, firm, and focused, both inspiring readers to take a similar approach and at the same time teaching them how.” —Adelia Moore, Ph.D., Connecticut Children's Medical Center School, Readings: A Journal of Reviews and Commentary in Mental Health

ELIANA GIL is director of the Center for Advanced Clinical Development in Springfield, Virginia. A marriage, family, and child counselor, and play therapy supervisor, she is on the board of directors of both the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children and the National Resource Center on Child Sexual Abuse. She is the author of numerous books including Play in Family Therapy (1994), Sexualized Children: Assessment and Treatment of Sexualized Children and Children Who Molest (1993), and The Healing Power of Play: Therapy with Abused Children (1991).