Treating Explosive Kids: The Collaborative Problem-Solving Approach

“Greene and Ablon have done it again. This book illustrates their clinical acumen, conceptual sophistication, and scientific rigor--all at the same time! This is an uncommonly useful book for students and for therapists at all levels of experience. The authors' collaborative problem-solving approach takes into consideration the delicate dance between poorly regulated children and their frustrated and sometimes poorly equipped parents. These children and their families require special interventions, and this innovative book goes a long way to helping us in our clinical practice, teaching, and research.”--Thomas H. Ollendick, PhD, Child Study Center and Department of Psychology, Virginia Tech

"Provocative, conceptually grounded, and clinically wise. The CPS approach looks at a range of common, vexing parent-child problems and applies sound individual and family strategies, innovatively framed in the context of children's deficits in executive functions, communication, and emotion regulation. Loaded with case examples, this is essential reading for all those who work with 'externalizing' children."--Stephen P. Hinshaw, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley

"This cutting-edge book provides a practical and easily understood guide for treating explosive children and adolescents. It presents an innovative, compassionate model that is very helpful in improving the quality of life for these kids and those who care for them." --Michael S. Jellinek, MD, Child Psychiatry Service, Massachusetts General Hospital; Departments of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School

"Greene and Ablon's CPS approach is an excellent integration of theory, research, and clinical wisdom. The authors present a thoughtful clinical framework and specific procedures for interpreting and managing children's explosive, noncompliant behavior. This book belongs on the bookshelf of every clinician who works with these youngsters."--Howard Abikoff, PhD, Institute for Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity and Behavior Disorders, NYU Child Study Center

"Ross Greene and J. Stuart Ablon...have elegantly translated neuropsychologists' perspective of how children organize their experiences, regulate their emotions and behaviors, and integrated it with systemic family therapy, empathy development, and communications analysis to present a refreshing treatment approach to disruptive behaviors in children and teens....Details a new systemic approach for children with behavioral issues, as well as articulates a significant challenge to interventions derived from learning theory (e.g. time-outs, token economies), which the authors feel are not sufficient explosive behaviors are the result of neurologically based skills deficits that should be remediated by parents in collaboration with their children, not by parents imposing their will on their children....Useful for clinicians at any stage in their training and level of expertise as a comprehensive introduction to a new treatment approach for a very challenging set of familiar clinical issues."

"One of the greatest benefits of the book is its case examples. There are several 'scripts' in which its approach is illustrated in different situations―schools, family therapy, and treatment facilities. These examples provide the reader with excellent demonstrations of the model....The book is well written and easy to read for both professionals and parents. The book's points are emphasized and reemphasized so that there is little possibility for confusion. Treating Explosive Kids can most certainly be a useful resource for psychologists in schools, private practice, and residential facilities and for parents and teachers."

The Collaborative Problem Solving version of the approach has also been substantially refined over the past decade by a team of clinical researchers in the Department of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital. While surely dated, this book depicts the original clinical presentation of the model which Dr. Greene originated and which we have since further developed. -- Stuart Ablon

Ross W. Greene, PhD, is the originator of the empirically supported model of psychosocial treatment described in his influential books The Explosive Child, Lost at School, Lost & Found, and Raising Human Beings. He no longer refers to his model as "Collaborative Problem Solving" (it's now Collaborative & Proactive Solutions). Dr. Greene was on the faculty at Harvard Medical School for over 20 years, and is now founding director of the non-profit Lives in the Balance (livesinthebalance.org), which provides vast free resources on his CPS model and advocates on behalf of behaviorally challenging kids and their caregivers. He is on the faculty of the Department of Psychology at Virginia Tech and the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia. He and his colleagues at Lives in the Balance consult to families, schools, inpatient psychiatry units, and residential and juvenile detention facilities throughout the world. Dr. Greene's speaking engagements and other trainings can be found at cpsconnection.com.

J. Stuart Ablon, Ph.D., is the Director of Think:Kids in the Department of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital. He is also Associate Professor and the Thomas G. Stemberg Endowed Chair in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Ablon is author of the books Changeable: How Collaborative Problem Solving Changes Lives at Home, at School, and at Work; Treating Explosive Kids: The Collaborative Problem Solving Approach, and The School Discipline Fix: Changing Behavior using the Collaborative Problem Solving Approach. Dr. Ablon trains parents, educators, and clinicians, and helps organizations throughout the world implement the Collaborative Problem Solving approach. Led by Dr. Ablon, Think:Kids at Massachusetts General Hospital (thinkkids.org) has been helps organizations around the world to implement the Collaborative Problem Solving approach.