Jill Adelson

This book is written in such a way that an untrained individual can find a way to address any one of the 5 types of perfectionism, and will suggest how to gently guide someone out of their unhealthy perfectionistic tendencies. The authors break out the five types of perfectionism, explain what they look like, and then offer strategies to guide a family, educator, or clinician through the process of helping and empowering someone in overcoming perfectionism. I'm not sure this would be entirely helpful for a clinician, as they would already be trained in working with children with perfectionist issues, and I was hoping for more parenting techniques than were provided. The options contained within are things I employ in my homeschool and home setting already. The tables are uncomplicated, and each chapter is easy to refer to and put into practice.… (more)

This is essentially a text book to help parents and teachers notice, communicate about, and hopefully correct perfectionistic tendencies in children. The authors to a good job of laying out all the information in a clear way and providing lots of resources for different expertise levels and environments. It's an extremely practical guide that is probably not intended to be read straight through like a novel. However, that's how I read it for the purpose of this review and it was frankly a bit dry and repetitive. For this reason, I would recommend other readers to simply skip around to the areas that are most relevant to their situations and not worry about completing it.

The resources list in the back I thought was especially helpful as there were a number of games and books that can make correcting troubling mental habits easier and even fun for the whole family.… (more)