Developmental Adaptations for FB-IPT for Depressed Preadolescents
Chapter 3 of Family-based Interpersonal Psychotherapy (FB-IPT) for Depressed Preadolescents presents the basics of family-based interpersonal therapy (FB-IPT), which is a psychosocial intervention for treating depression in preadolescents (ages 7–12). Adapted from interpersonal psychotherapy for depressed adolescents (IPT-A), FB-IPT includes several developmental modifications, including systematically involving a parent weekly in treatment, presenting treatment strategies visually, teaching communication skills in age-appropriate language, and having the preteen experiment with initiating social interactions outside of sessions in order to improve her engagement intreatment and acquisition of new skills. FB-IPT identifies treatment targets for both preadolescents and parents and is easily modified to target younger children’s (ages 7–8) cognitive and verbal abilities.