Breaking Through to Teens Psychotherapy for the New Adolescence

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.

Introduction1. Context: The New Adolescence and a New Treatment Paradigm2. First Meeting: Getting Teens to Talk3. Foundation: What's Necessary to Build a Helping Relationship with Teens4. The Core: Healing the Divided Self of 21st-Century Teens5. Direction: Advice as Essential to Helping Teens Change Behavior and Attitudes6. The Gray Zone: The Truth about Lying to Therapists and Other Child Professionals7. Treatment Unbound: Creating "Flexible Confidentiality"8. The Parent Trap: Childrearing Advice as Essential to Helping Parents Change Behavior9. Stuck: How to Conduct a "Focused Family Session"10. The Village: Bringing Friends into Treatment11. The Real in Relational: Challenging Ourselves to Stay Three-Dimensional with Teens

Ron Taffel, PhD, has supervised and written about working with children and families for over two decades. He is one of the countrys most sought-after speakers for both professional and parent audiences. Dr. Taffel is the award-winning author of over 100 academic and popular articles, as well as critically acclaimed childrearing guides and books for professionals, and is a contributing editor to McCalls and Parents magazines. He is the founder of Family and Couples Treatment Services at The Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy in New York City, where he lives with his wife and two children.