These workshops are three hours long each. They explore field-tested and evidence-based approaches for providing teens developmentally appropriate, effective therapy. Packed with practical strategies, stories from the field, and a bit of inspiration, the workshops explore topics such as fostering therapeutic alliance, facilitating change, and more.
Offerings include:
- Reframing Resistance: Maybe Teens Aren’t Stubborn, Oppositional, or In Denial
- Cultivating Rapport: How To Build Therapeutic Alliances with Teens
- Facilitating Change: Helping Teens Move from Ambivalence to Action
- Putting the Pieces Together: Teens, Trauma, and Substance Use Disorders
- No Reason to Stop: Substance Use Among Teens
Descriptions can be found below. These trainings provide 3 general CEUs each and are typically scheduled to include one 15-minute break. They can be presented in-person or online. For more details or to schedule a workshop, contact me today.
REFRAMING RESISTANCE: MAYBE TEENS AREN’T STUBBORN, OPPOSITIONAL, OR IN DENIAL
Many teen clients seem unwilling, unengaged, or uninterested in therapy. That doesn’t mean they’re resistant, though. It means they don’t want to talk about their feelings with a stranger, learn shrink-wrapped coping skills, or identify measurable treatment goals. What teen would?
In this highly interactive workshop, we’ll reframe this so-called resistance from developmental, attachment, and trauma-informed perspectives — to help us look beyond this initial reluctance and engage teen clients more effectively. Packed with practical strategies, stories from the field, and a bit of inspiration this presentation is sure to transform your clinical work with teens.
CULTIVATING RAPPORT: HOW TO BUILD THERAPEUTIC ALLIANCE WITH TEENS
Building therapeutic alliance can seem daunting to many clinicians, especially when working with hard-to-engage teens. However, studies show effective therapeutic alliances are absolutely essential for engagement, retention, and positive outcomes.
We’ll start this workshop by exploring the importance of developing effective alliances and identifying common reasons teens can be resistant to treatment. Then, we’ll develop practical skills for overcoming those obstacles by increasing our trustworthiness, nurturing connectedness, and embodying empathy. Along the way, we’ll explore the role of self-disclosure, field-tested strategies for engaging teens with insecure attachment styles, and
FACILITATING CHANGE: HELPING TEENS MOVE FROM AMBIVALENCE TO ACTION
Change is a process, not an event. Many teens enter counseling with little commitment to this process. Instead, they seem resistant, stubborn, or in denial. Our goal as professional helpers isn’t to talk them into action — that wouldn’t work anyway — but to help them resolve their ambivalence about change, find their own motivation, and start moving forward.
We’ll start this workshop by examining core ideas from Motivational Interviewing and the Stages of Change model — two evidence-based approaches to facilitating lasting change. Then we’ll explore stage-specific interventions, strategies for integrating change-talk into every session, and field-tested ideas for facilitating change with teens. Along the way, we’ll examine developmental considerations, common obstacles, and more.
PUTTING THE PIECES TOGETHER: TEENS, TRAUMA, AND SUBSTANCE USE DISORDERS
Studies show a strong connection between substance-related problems and trauma exposure. Unfortunately, in many treatment settings this connection goes unnoticed and unaddressed — resulting in endless cycles of maladaptive behaviors, multiple treatment failures, and ever-increasing stuckness.
In this highly interactive workshop, we’ll explore ways trauma exposure and substance use disorders exacerbate each other, increase our understanding of the stuckness this can lead to, and identify practical strategies for helping trauma-exposed teens get unstuck.
NO REASON TO STOP: SUBSTANCE USE AMONG TEENS
Most mental health counselors have limited training regarding substance use, especially when it comes understanding or addressing these issues among teens. However, teens with these concerns show up in our offices all the time! In fact, statistics show that up to 40% of teens in mental health counseling have a co-occurring substance use disorder.
When teens don’t get effective treatment for substance related problems, they can become stuck in endless cycles of maladaptive behaviors, experiencing multiple treatment failures and frustrating even the most dedicated professional helpers. This highly interactive presentation will help change these outcomes, by deepening our understanding of substance use, exploring the connections between mental health concerns and using, and identify practical skills for helping teens recognize problems, resolve ambivalence, and identify their own reasons to make different choices.