Dr. Brad Sachs is a prominent child and family psychologist who brings a very special expertise to When No One Understands: Letters To a Teenager on Life, Loss, and the Hard Road to Adulthood (Trumpeter). This 144-page compendium of experience-based commentary and advice surveys and addresses commonly held concerns shared by teenagers and includes such topics as relationships, breakups, drugs, and alcohol, parents, family dynamics, coping with loss, dealing with depression, and the necessity to put life events into a workable perspective.

A gifted public speaker and workshop presenter, Dr. Sachs is also a talented writer who, as a psychologist and an author, is able to communicate with equal fluency to both teens and their parents, making When No One Understands highly recommended and a thoroughly “user-friendly” reading, and a welcome addition to community library collections and personal self-help reading lists.
--Margaret Lane, “Reviewer’s Bookwatch” April 2007

A teen girl called Amanda survives a serious attempt at suicide. She is unable to voice her anguish in counseling sessions with her therapist, Dr. Brad Sachs, but is able to express herself more freely through writing letters to him. This book is a compilation of Dr. Sachs’s responses. Each of his letters is headed with a title that encapsulates Amanda’s concerns, such as, “Why am I so lonely?” and “Why do I get high?” Dr. Sachs’s letters serve as an excellent model for encouraging communication with a teen. He is always encouraging, even when treading difficult ground, such as when he writes, “It was good to know that you felt that a more in-depth discussion of drug and alcohol use would be worthwhile—I think it shows a lot of maturity on your part.” If all adults could incorporate this kind of intrinsic respect into their conversations with adolescents, the world would be a wonderful place.
--Diane Emge Colson, VOYA February 2007

...This book contains about half of the doctor's letters, and they are gems... Throughout this short book, Amanda grows and changes, as do her parents and the author himself....This excellent book will be savored again and again. Highly recommended for all psychology collections.
--Library Journal