The Explosive Child
Acknowledgments
I would like to acknowledge the contributions of my valued colleague and friend, Dr. Stuart Ablon, whose insights and energy have been instrumental in the evolution of the Collaborative Problem
Solving approach. I am also indebted, as always, to my agent and friend, Wendy Lipkind. My thinking about how to help explosive children and their adult caretakers has been influenced by many parents, teachers, and supervisors.
It was my incredible good fortune to have been mentored by Dr. Thomas Ollendick while I was a graduate student in the clinical psyvii chology program at Virginia Tech. Two psychologists who supervised me during my training years were particularly influential: Drs. George Clum at Virginia Tech and Mary Ann McCabe at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. And I probably wouldn’t have gone into psychology in the first place if I hadn’t stumbled across the path of Dr. Elizabeth Altmaier when I was an undergraduate at the University of Florida.
However, those who were most central to the evolution of many of the ideas in this book, and to whom I
owe the greatest debt of gratitude, were the many children with whom I’ve worked and the parents who entrusted me with their care.
I also want to acknowledge the countless people throughout the world who have embraced the Collaborative Problem Solving approach and, against the odds but with vision and energy and relentless determination, have advocated for implementation of the approach in their schools, clinics, inpatient units, and residential and juvenile detention facilities. There are truly amazing
people in this world who care deeply about improving the lives of children, and it has been my privilege to have crossed paths with many of you. This book is about children and families, and I’d be
remiss if I didn’t acknowledge my own: my wife, Melissa; my kids, Talia and Jacob, who keep me laughing and learning and make sure I practice what I preach; and Sandy, the Big Black Dog.
While there are many explosive girls, for ease of exposition most of this book is written in the masculine gender. The names and identifying information of all the children in this book are completely fictitious. Any resemblance to actual children of the same names is, as the saying goes, purely coincidental.
