Clinical and Educational Interventions with Fathers

Call on men's hidden strengths to help them become responsible fathers in even the most challenging circumstances!Clinical and Educational Interventions with Fathers gives you fresh approaches for effective interventions with fathers. Whether by calling on their faith to help them deal with the complexities of fatherhood or offering high-tech interventions on the Internet, these techniques help men find their strengths, maintain their masculinity, and learn to guide, nurture, and discipline with love and responsibility. Instead of thinking of fathers as deficient, the book emphasizes finding fathers'strengths and potentials for growth. It also respects the diversity of parenting styles among fathers from various ethnic, racial, and class backgrounds.No man wants to be a bad father. Nevertheless, many men in our culture do not know how to care for the children they beget. Trapped by stereotypes of masculine behavior and deprived of positive role models, they find themselves trying to do the challenging work of fatherhood without the necessary resources, information, or support.Clinical and Educational Interventions with Fathers offers positive approaches to helping men become responsible fathers, including:

• designing special techniques and programs to help fathers in prison and other challenging circumstances
• helping fathers manage anger
• developing therapeutic support groups for African-American men
• offering Web-based support for fathers
• training staff to recognize and respond to fathers'unique needs
• finding legal tools to support fathers'rights

Reaching fathers has become an ever more urgent priority for practitioners as family structure and family life change. Traditional social-service programs for mothers tend not to work well with men's very different needs and attitudes. Yet very little has been published on successful interventions with fathers. Clinical and Educational Interventions with Fathers fills that gap and suggests promising new directions for further research in this field. By offering positive, tested ways to help men become responsible fathers, this volume will help you improve their lives and the lives of their sons and daughters.