Main description:

This book presents groundbreaking strategies for psychotherapy with today's teens, for whom high-risk behavior, lack of adult guidance, and intense anxiety and stress increasingly come with the territory. Ron Taffel addresses the key challenge of building a therapeutic relationship that is strong enough to promote real behavioral and emotional change. He demonstrates effective ways to give advice that teens will listen to, get them to tell the truth about their lives, help parents reestablish their authority, and extend the reach of therapy by such nontraditional means as inviting teens to bring friends into sessions.

Contents:

Introduction 1. Context: The New Adolescence and a New Treatment Paradigm 2. First Meeting: Getting Teens to Talk 3. Foundation: What's Necessary to Build a Helping Relationship with Teens 4. The Core: Healing the Divided Self of 21st-Century Teens 5. Direction: Advice as Essential to Helping Teens Change Behavior and Attitudes 6. The Gray Zone: The Truth about Lying to Therapists and Other Child Professionals 7. Treatment Unbound: Creating "Flexible Confidentiality" 8. The Parent Trap: Childrearing Advice as Essential to Helping Parents Change Behavior 9. Stuck: How to Conduct a "Focused Family Session" 10. The Village: Bringing Friends into Treatment 11. The Real in Relational: Challenging Ourselves to Stay Three-Dimensional with Teens