Introduction

Abstract

One set of parents I counseled told me that their child was like a moving target. Whenever they thought they had reached him, he was already moving onward to somewhere else, and they kept running after him, trying to understand him and to give him what he needed, without success. I think this is a good metaphor for the area of child psychotherapy in general. The field of child and adolescent therapy has grown remarkably over the last 30 years. New assessment tools, new studies on child development, and new techniques and strategies have come to the aid of the therapist. Over a decade ago, Kazdin (1988a) counted 230 different therapeutic techniques directed toward childhood and adolescence. This abundance opens up greater choices but does not necessarily provide answers to the continual debates about what can best benefit children and what is the best way to treat children and adolescents.