Topic
Children & parents
Being a parent often means facing difficulties that no instruction manual covers: defiance, anxiety, sleep, screens, refusing to go to school or bullying. The resources in this topic are written first for parents and offer practical strategies drawn from parent training programmes and from therapies evaluated in children. They also look at what parents themselves go through, from the birth of a child to parental burnout.
35 resources
For the public
When a parent has a mental illness: supporting the child and the teenager
A mother who no longer gets up, a father in hospital, a parent who drinks or hears voices: many children grow up alongside a parent who has a mental illness, and most of them will not develop that parent's illness. This guide explains what the child goes through, what research has established about the risk and about what protects against it, and how to talk to the child about the illness according to their age, get through a hospital admission, keep the child from becoming the family's carer and protect their life as a child. It offers an eight-week plan and says when to seek help.
When your teenager self-harms: understanding it and helping
Marks on a forearm, long sleeves in the middle of summer, a stained tissue at the bottom of a bin: discovering that your child is hurting themselves turns everything upside down. This guide explains what the act does for them, what it says about suicide risk and why you must always ask the question. It then describes what to do: respond without punishing and without promising secrecy, recognise emergencies, make the home safe without turning it into a prison, and find the treatments that have proved themselves.
Bedwetting: a guide for parents
Sheets to change in the middle of the night, a child who feels ashamed, a residential school trip coming up. This guide explains why a child wets the bed without meaning to, what makes things worse, and what has proved itself: simple measures, the alarm step by step, and the medicine the doctor can offer. It also says which signs mean you should see a doctor without waiting.
Parental burnout: when being a parent wears you out
You shout more than you would like to, you count the hours until bedtime, and rest is no longer enough to put you back on your feet. This guide explains what parental burnout is, how to tell it apart from depression, and how to rebalance, step by step, the scales between what wears you out and what helps you. It also says frankly what can happen when exhaustion becomes extreme, and where to ask for help straight away.
Bullying and cyberbullying: a guide for parents
A child with a stomach ache every Sunday evening, a phone turned face down on the table, friends who are no longer mentioned: bullying is rarely visible, and even more rarely talked about. This guide helps parents recognise it, respond well when their child opens up, protect them, bring in the school in writing and hold firm over time, including when everything is happening online, and when it is their own child who is doing the bullying or watching without a word.
Screens and social media: a guide for parents
What the research actually shows about screens and social media, age by age, without scaremongering or complacency. Sleep, attention, body image, bullying, video games, the first phone, and the family rules that really hold up over time.
Supporting a child or adolescent through their parents' separation
How to tell them, what a child goes through at each age, how to organise two homes — and what research identifies as the real danger: it is not the separation itself, and you have a hold on it.
Supporting your anxious child
What quietly keeps a child's anxiety going, and what makes it recede: validating without reassuring, reducing accommodation (the everyday adjustments that feed the fear), building the bravery ladder. With the exact words to use.
Defiant child, ADHD child: the PSYCHOTIP® parent programme
Understand ADHD and oppositional defiant disorder, then ten concrete steps to break out of the daily escalation and rebuild authority that works.
Autism in children: a guide for parents
He lines up his toy cars for hours, does not turn round when you call him, and every change of plan turns into a crisis. This guide explains what autism is, where it comes from and what does not cause it, how the path towards a diagnosis works and what genuinely helps according to the research. It offers a method for everyday life, from the predictable day to the crisis plan, and says clearly what does not work and what can do harm.
Depression in children and teenagers: a guide for parents
He slams doors, no longer sees his friends and sleeps until two in the afternoon on Saturdays; she has a stomach ache every morning and keeps saying she is useless. This guide helps you recognise depression behind irritability or withdrawal, ask about suicide without beating about the bush and make the home safe. It describes the treatments that have proved themselves, what is honestly known about medication in young people, and a seven-step method you can start this very week.
After the birth: baby blues or postnatal depression?
Tears on the third day are often the baby blues, and they pass within a few days. A sadness, an anxiety or an emptiness that lasts for weeks is something else, and it can be treated. This guide helps new parents and those close to them to tell the difference, to recognise the one situation that calls for action the same day, to understand the frightening thoughts that go through the minds of so many parents, and to get back on their feet, starting with the nights.
My child won't go to school any more
Stomach aches every morning, pleading at the door, then whole days at home: school refusal wears families out, and it gets worse when you wait. This guide helps parents understand what their child is avoiding, check first that they are not being bullied, depressed or struggling with learning, and then build a return with the school in small steps, starting with the mornings.
Anorexia: a guide for parents
Your child is eating less and less, cuts everything into tiny pieces, goes running before breakfast, and every meal ends in tears or in silence. This guide explains what anorexia nervosa is, why your teenager cannot simply start eating again, and why parents, who are not its cause, are at the heart of the treatment with the strongest evidence. It describes step by step how to get through meals, what helps and what harms, and which signs call for urgent medical advice.
Children's and teenagers' sleep: a guide for parents
The fifth glass of water at ten at night, the wake-ups at two in the morning, the teenager who falls asleep at one and can no longer get up. This guide explains what happens at each age and describes the methods that have proved themselves: the bedtime routine, learning to fall asleep alone step by step, calming evening fears, responding to night terrors, resetting a teenager's clock. It also says plainly what should send you to the doctor.
For professionals
These manuals are written for psychologists, psychiatrists and other mental health practitioners. Anyone can read a preview; the full text is reserved for practitioners who have submitted proof of their professional status and who hold a professional plan.
Children and adolescents whose parent has a mental illness: a therapist's manual
A session-by-session protocol for children and adolescents aged 4 to 17 who have a parent with a mental illness, and for their parents: three assessment sessions in which each person is seen alone, three sessions with the parents, two with the child, a family meeting in which the parents themselves talk about the illness, a written plan for relapses and hospital admissions, the link with the school, a module for the adolescent and a brief format of three meetings. Safety first, without confusing mental illness with danger; age-appropriate psychoeducation that undoes the child's guilt; the parent's treatment as part of prevention, in liaison with their care team. Based on Family Talk, "Let's Talk about Children" and the Compas family intervention, with modest measured effects, stated as they are. Particular situations, worksheets to hand over and full references.
Parental separation and divorce: supporting the child and the parents — a therapist's manual
A session-by-session protocol for children and adolescents aged 6 to 17 whose parents are separating, and for their parents: three assessment sessions, eight sessions with each parent, six sessions with the child, and a joint session only if safety allows. First, screening for violence and coercive control in separate interviews, and protecting the child. Then what really protects the child: less conflict in front of them, no longer being placed in the middle, a warm relationship and rules that are kept in each home, and accurate ideas about what happened. The child who refuses to see a parent, the question of "parental alienation", the legal framework, the worksheets to hand over and full references.
Conduct disorder in children and adolescents: a therapist's manual
A twenty-session programme over three to four months for preadolescents and adolescents aged 10 to 17 with conduct disorder, in three modules: eight sessions with the parents, eight with the young person and four joint sessions, one of them with the school. Safety first — violence, weapons, fire-setting, maltreatment suffered, suicide risk, involvement with the justice system — then, on the parents' side, warmth, supervision grounded in the relationship, negotiated rules and predictable consequences, and, on the young person's side, his own goals, anger, the thoughts that justify transgression, problem solving and the company he keeps. Limited prosocial emotions, multisystemic therapy and functional family therapy described through their principles and their results, what does harm, the place of medication, nine worksheets and full references.
Enuresis in children: a therapist's quick guide
A short guide, in five sessions, for conducting the treatment of nocturnal enuresis in children together with the family. The medical assessment first, and the warning signs that call for a return to the doctor. Then what falls to the psychologist: saying that it is nobody's fault, setting sanctions aside, setting up the alarm, holding on until fourteen dry nights and preparing for relapse. Desmopressin as a medical decision, special situations, four printable worksheets and the references.
Treating oppositional defiant disorder in children: a therapist's manual
A protocol of twelve sessions with the parents and six with the child, session by session, built on parent management training — the recommended first-line treatment. Diagnostic sorting and screening for violence first, then the coercive cycle explained to the parents, special time, differential attention, effective instructions, consequences, time-out, the points chart, high-risk moments and school. Detailed conduct of in-session practice and of time-out, callous-unemotional traits, the question of medication, worksheets to hand the parents, and full references.
Specific learning disorders: a therapist's manual
A practice guide, without numbered sessions, for psychologists and psychiatrists who encounter dyslexia, dysorthographia and dyscalculia, from childhood to adulthood. Remediation falls to other professions; this manual describes what falls to you: identifying the difficulty, ruling out other explanations, assessing and reading an assessment report, giving the diagnosis, judging progress by reliable change, treating anxiety, depression, school refusal and suicide risk, coordinating with the school and following the person through transitions. What the classifications say, what the French word "dys" covers, what research establishes, what has not proved its worth, eight worksheets and full references.
Autism in children and adolescents: a therapist's manual
A modular programme for supporting autistic children and adolescents aged 2 to 17 and their families: a common core of eight sessions — locating the diagnosis, drawing the child's portrait, understanding autism after the diagnosis has been given, making the day predictable, adjusting for the senses, involving the school — and a module chosen according to age and the request. A parent-mediated intervention for the young child, parent training based on functional analysis for challenging behaviour, cognitive behavioural therapy adapted for anxiety, and work on self-understanding, relationships and transitions in adolescence. Quality of life rather than normalisation, what can be treated treated, the debates presented with their sources, nine worksheets and full references.
Treating selective mutism in children: a therapist's manual
A twenty-session protocol, eight of them at school, for selective mutism in children aged 3 to 10: graded exposure to speaking through stimulus fading, shaping and reinforcement, conducted with the parents and the teacher. The adults learn to talk to the child differently, with forced-choice questions, a waiting time and specific praise, and gradually to stop answering for them, without pressure or punishment. The differential diagnosis with the silent period of bilingual children, language disorders and autism, a measured response criterion, the cautious place of medication, preparing for each new school year, eight worksheets and full references.
Treating obsessive-compulsive disorder in children and adolescents: a therapist's manual
A fourteen-session protocol over twelve weeks, session by session, for obsessive-compulsive disorder in children and adolescents: cognitive behavioural therapy with exposure with response prevention, adapted to age and conducted with the parents. The OCD named as an opponent, the ladder of challenges, hidden rituals and reassurance questions, and two sessions reserved for the parents to reduce family accommodation and to hold firm during crises. The PANS and PANDAS hypotheses presented with caution, the place of medication, school, eight worksheets and full references.
Sleep disorders in children and adolescents: a therapist's manual
A session-by-session protocol for sleep disorders in children, from six months of age, and in adolescents. A shared assessment that begins by identifying what belongs to the doctor, then a track conducted with the parents of the young child — bedtime and bedtime routine, gradual withdrawal plan, night wakings, bedtime fears — and a track conducted with the adolescent and their parents — adapted cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia, morning light, advancing the clock, negotiated screens. Two modules, for nightmares and for sleepwalking and sleep terrors; ADHD and autism, melatonin, the actual state of the evidence on screens, worksheets to hand out and full references.
Cannabis use disorder: a therapist's manual
A twelve-session protocol, session by session, for cannabis use disorder in adults, and an adolescent and family strand described meeting by meeting. First the risks that change what you do: psychotic symptoms, suicidal thoughts, cyclical vomiting, pregnancy, driving. Then the goal, stopping or cutting down, discussed honestly. Motivational interviewing, functional analysis, withdrawal and sleep, craving, refusal, the lapse, contingency management, today's products, medical cannabis, worksheets to hand over and full references.
Tics and Tourette syndrome: a therapist's manual
A ten-session protocol, session by session, for persistent tics and Tourette syndrome in children, adolescents and adults, with parents involved for minors. First the decision to treat or to wait, because the course is often favourable in adolescence. Then the behavioural intervention recommended as first-line treatment — awareness training, the competing response, social support, work on the context of the tics, relaxation as an adjunct — and exposure with response prevention as an alternative. School life and teasing, the place of medication, tic-like movements of functional origin, not to be confused with tics, nine worksheets and full references.
Perinatal depression and anxiety: a therapist's manual
A twelve-session protocol, session by session, for depression and anxiety disorders arising in pregnancy and in the first year after birth, based on cognitive behavioural therapy and on interpersonal therapy. Emergencies first — postpartum psychosis, maternal suicide risk, thoughts of harming the baby that must be told apart with care — then sleep, activation, the demands of the good mother, intrusive thoughts, the couple, the role transition, the bond with the baby and a birth experienced as traumatic. The place of medication during pregnancy and breastfeeding, fathers and co-parents, perinatal bereavement, ten worksheets to hand over and full references.
Post-traumatic stress disorder in children and adolescents: a therapist's manual
A fourteen-session protocol, session by session, for post-traumatic stress disorder in children and adolescents, with child time and parent time in every session. Safeguarding first: if the child is still exposed to violence or abuse, reporting and making the child safe come before treatment. Then the components of trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy and of cognitive therapy for PTSD in children — understanding, regulating, telling what happened in a way that fits the child's age through play, drawing or writing, taking back what is avoided, sharing the story with the non-offending parent, learning to keep safe. Presentations by age, differential diagnosis, school, legal proceedings, the place of medication, worksheets to hand over and full references.
Suicidal behaviour and self-harm in adolescents: a therapist's manual
A fourteen-session protocol, session by session, for the adolescent who is hurting themselves or who has made an attempt. First the sorting: self-harm without suicidal intent and suicidal behaviour are not the same thing, and yet one predicts the other. Then safety — a written safety plan, means restriction organised with the parents —, the chain analysis that gives you the target, and work on emotion regulation, relationships and shame. Confidentiality with a minor, criteria for hospitalisation, the place of medication, contagion and social media, worksheets to hand over, and full references.
Treating anxiety-based school refusal: a therapist's manual
A protocol of fourteen sessions, session by session, for the child or adolescent who can no longer get to school. First the sorting: four situations carry the same symptom and do not call for the same response. Then assessment from three sources, a graded written return plan, a detailed morning protocol for the parents, and a whole session devoted to the school itself. The pace is tight at the start because time is the main variable. Bullying, physical complaints, compulsory schooling, the place of medication, worksheets to hand over, and full references.
Treating depression in children and adolescents: a therapist's manual
A protocol of sixteen sessions, session by session, for major depressive episodes before the age of eighteen. The clinical picture by age band — irritability rather than sadness in children —, assessment in three voices with the young person, the parents and the school, a whole session devoted to suicide risk and the safety plan, and a section on confidentiality with a minor. Then activation adapted to age, emotions, thoughts, the return to school, sleep and screens. Four sessions with the parents, the place of medication stated in full, worksheets to hand over and complete references.
Treating ADHD in children: a therapist's manual
A protocol of twelve sessions with the parents and six with the child, session by session, built on the behavioural and organisational interventions recommended in childhood ADHD. Multi-informant assessment and diagnostic sorting first, then feedback, explaining the disorder to the family and to the child, positive attention, instructions, the external frame, immediate consequences, homework, mornings and evenings, impulsivity and school. The place of medication stated clearly, detailed conduct of external organisation and of school collaboration, worksheets to hand the family, and full references.
Treating anxiety in children: a therapist's manual
A protocol of fourteen sessions with the child and six with the parents, session by session: the normal fears of each age, the diagnostic sorting, the thermometer, the fear ladder, graded exposure with a written prediction, separation and bedtime, reassurance, school. Detailed conduct of exposure, reducing family accommodation, selective mutism and school refusal, the question of medication, worksheets to hand the child, and full references.
Treating screen dependence in adolescents: a therapist's manual
A protocol of fourteen sessions with the adolescent and six with the parents, session by session. The safety screen first — bullying, intimate images, grooming, gambling — then the diagnostic sorting, sleep, the household environment, school, and rules negotiated rather than imposed. What the classifications say, what they do not say, common mistakes, worksheets to hand the adolescent, and full references.
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