Treating Childhood Depression with Contextual Emotion Regulation Therapy

This book is the authoritative presentation of contextual emotion regulation therapy (CERT), an innovative intervention expressly designed for depressed children ages 7–13 and their parents. CERT is grounded in decades of research on the development of emotion regulation and on “mood repair” difficulties as a risk factor for clinical depression. Step by step, Maria Kovacs describes ways to teach children skills to modulate feelings of sadness and distress and break the hold of depression symptoms. Extensive therapist, parent, and child exchanges illustrate key treatment principles. Clinicians learn how to structure CERT sessions and implement personalized social–interpersonal, cognitive, behavioral, problem-solving, and psychoeducational interventions. Reproducible tools in the appendices—including forms, posters, and a parent manual—can be downloaded and printed in a convenient 8½“ x 11” size.