The Dysregulated Adult

People experiencing disorders in regulation are highly sensitive to stimulation from the environment, emotionally reactive, and have difficulty maintaining an organized and calm life style. They are impulsive, easily frustrated, and as a result make decisions that lead to an overwrought state-or who conversely retreat entirely from the world. This disorder is most likely to accompany diagnoses of bipolar or mood disorder, anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, Asperger's syndrome, eating or sleep disorders, and/or attention deficit disorder. This book instructs therapists how best to treat the dysregulated adult, providing diagnostic checklists, and a chapter by chapter inventory in approaching treatment of dysregulation in a variety of life skills. - Informs the therapist how dysregulation relates to multiple disorders - Includes clinical observations and case studies - Gives the therapist tools and techniques for the client to understand his behavior, reframe problems in a positive way, and take responsibility for behavior change - Encompasses sensory integration therapy and mind-body techniques for the therapist to guide the client toward self-calming - Emphasis on effective relational dynamics between the client and significant persons in his or her life - Separate chapters on how to treat dysregulation effects on multiple behaviors, including mood regulation, behavioral control, inattention, sleep, feeding, and social interactions

Georgia DeGangi, Ph.D., OTR, FAOTA, is a clinical psychologist and an occupational therapist. She currently works in private practice at ITS (Integrated Therapy Services) for Children and Families, Inc., in Kensington, Maryland, and has worked at the Reginald S. Lourie Center for Infants and Children in Rockville, Maryland, as the Director of Research for the past ten years. She has over 25 years' experience working with infants, children and their families. She has extensive experience with diagnosis and treatment of a range of developmental, sensory, behavioral, and emotional problems. Dr. DeGangi has conducted research for many years to examine the most effective ways of treating children as well as examining how problems in infancy related to self-regulation, sensory processing, attention, and social interactions develop as children grow older. Among her publications are the Test of Sensory Functions in Infants, the Infant/Toddler Symptom Checklist, and the Test of Attention in Infants. Dr. DeGangi is internationally recognized as a leading expert in the assessment and treatment of sensory processing, attention, and interactional problems in infants and children. She was the 1992 recipient of the A. Jean Ayres award from the American Occupational Therapy Foundation and has been distinguished in the roster of fellows of the American Occupational Therapy Association. She serves on the faculty at the Infant/Child Mental Health program of the Washington School of Psychiatry and is associate editor of the Journal of Learning and Developmental Disorders.