William R. Beardslee, MD

William R. Beardslee, MD, is the Gardner Monks Professor of Child Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and is the Academic Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Children 's Hospital in Boston.

He is a graduate of Haverford College and Case Western Reserve Medical School and has been practicing psychiatry for more than thirty years.

Dr. Beardslee is the author of " Out of the Darkened Room: Protecting the children and Strengthening the Family When a Parent is Depressed." Karen Peterson of USA Today writes, "... a reader-friendly book for parents...The fact that depression often runs in families is well established. But landmark research, which focuses on prevention, now shows what can break the cycle and help protect youngsters from future illness. Child psychiatrist William Beardslee has run two major studies involving hundreds of children... Beardlee's team found one type of intervention in families with a depressed parent to be particularly helpful: a brief series of meeting with a clinician, some for parents alone and children alone, plus family sessions together. Importantly the child learned he was not responsible for his parent's sadness. Communication in the family improved. Beardslee believes that open family discussions lead to understanding the illness and help protect the next generation."

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