Contactivity

Social anxiety, avoidance, withdrawal, and self-isolation are becoming increasingly widespread among children and adolescents. Parents of avoiders typically come to therapy feeling utterly helpless. They find it impossible to engage in any meaningful conversation with their child, let alone motivate him. While these parents are usually aware that their child avoids school and social activities, they may not realize how disconnected the child is also from his own self. The solution to avoidance is reconnecting - to self, other, and group. Contact is the most important ingredient in disrupting patterns of avoidance. Yet to achieve contact with an avoidant child is not easy.

This book provides an innovative approach to motivate and encourage these young people. Specific tools are provided to shift the avoider from experiencing shame and anxiety to developing self-pride and the courage to face the challenges of life in the contemporary world. Through this book, therapists, educators, and parents will learn:

• How to have a conversation with an avoider
• How to help adolescents who refuse to go to school
• How to motivate the avoidant child
• How to reestablish within the avoider a sense of belonging to family and friends
• How to use video games as a leverage to empower the avoidant person