34 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Are you a mental-health "gatekeeper"? Please read this book, April 15, 2008
This review is from: Integrative Treatment for Adult ADHD: A Practical, Easy-To-Use Guide for Clinicians (Paperback)
Our society largely considers therapists to be the first line of defense when we experience personal challenges. That's great if we have garden-variety "issues." But if we have a neurocognitive condition such as ADHD, the wrong therapy can be worse than no therapy at all. And I'm not exaggerating.
Many frustrating years can be spent in talk therapy trying to discover the deep, dark, "real" reason why a person procrastinates or "sabotages" his or her own goals and plans--never knowing that a medical condition is the reason. (A treatable medical condition.) Many clients are encouraged to pin the genesis of their problems on a dysfunctional childhood, never knowing that ADHD is highly heritable. (In other words, odds are good that at least one of the client's parents was exhibiting problematic ADHD behavioral patterns, too.)
Talk therapy might provide a few epiphanies and strategies for change, albeit most of them short-lived. But for many people with ADHD, therapy with a clinician who fails to recognize ADHD or appreciate its significance is a costly proposition that can actually diminish hopes that patterns can ever change.
For some long-time therapists, all this might be hard to accept, but Dr. Tuckman gently nudges readers into these new paradigms. Partly this is due to his clear and accessible prose style. But it's also due, I think, to his knack for acknowledging situations in which a well-trained therapist might draw certain conclusions--but be perfectly wrong. And he does it tactfully and congenially. Not easy!
After years of being a support-group leader for both adults with ADHD and the partners of adults with ADHD, I'm grateful to welcome Dr. Tuckman's practical addition to my Adult ADHD library. It is thorough, practical, authoritative, and easily understood. Routinely, I recommend clinician guides like this to adults with ADHD (and their loved ones); they simply contain more substantial and helpful information than most consumer books on Adult ADHD.
If you are a non-ADHD-savvy clinician who assumes that you would surely recognize ADHD in a client or that you could simply "intuit" the right treatment path, please reconsider. You really don't want to harm your client, do you? You don't want to postpone, maybe even entirely eliminate, the client's chance for success, do you? No, of course not. You want to help your clients free the obstacles in their path. And that's exactly what this book can help you to do.
Gina Pera
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Valuable information for adults with AD/HD, October 30, 2007
This review is from: Integrative Treatment for Adult ADHD: A Practical, Easy-To-Use Guide for Clinicians (Paperback)
This is a truly wonderful, insightful book. In my involvement with a support group for adults with AD/HD it is very clear that many therapists and psychologists don't understand this disorder very well. This creates an unfortunate situation where adults with AD/HD are seeking the appropriate therapy, but have trouble locating knowlegable professionals in their community. A frustrating scenario occurs when the client knows more about AD/HD than the specialist they are reaching out to for help. If mental health professionals read and follow the well-written, research-based material in Dr. Tuckman's book, adults with AD/HD will no longer
have to muddle through with one-size-fits-all therapists or try to patch together their own program based on knowledge they have accumulated on their own.
Although written for clinicians, if you are an adult with AD/HD seeking treatment, this book will help you determine what questions to ask of potential therapists to ensure that you are getting the most effective treatment. If you are currently seeing a therapist
and don't feel you are making progress, you may want to tactfully give them this book!
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Practical suggestions, November 6, 2007
This review is from: Integrative Treatment for Adult ADHD: A Practical, Easy-To-Use Guide for Clinicians (Paperback)
As a psychologist who sees first hand the daily struggle of persons with ADHD, I can say that Dr. Tuckman's book is a gem. It provides an excellent overview of causes and treatmnets for ADHD. Teachers, counselors, social workers, coaches, psychologists and psychiatrists can learn so many techniques that are effective in helping persons with ADHD. Also, persons with ADHD may find very practical suggestions to help themselves to cope more effectively with the often debilitating and frustrating symptoms of ADHD. I strongly recommend this book to my colleagues.
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