These workshops explore field-tested approaches for providing developmentally appropriate, effective therapy when working with teens. Packed with practical strategies, stories from the field, and a bit of inspiration, they include topics such as resolving resistance, fostering therapeutic alliance, and facilitating change.
Workshops include:
- Reframing Resistance: Maybe teens aren’t stubborn, oppositional, or in denial
- Mindfulness with Teens
- Cultivating Rapport: Building transformative therapeutic alliances with teens
- My Brain Hates Me! Addressing intrusive thoughts in teens and emerging adults
Descriptions can be found below. For more details or to schedule a workshop, contact me today.
We’ll start by reframing this so-called resistance using three alternate perspectives:
- A Developmental Reframe: Adolescence is a discreet developmental stage with predictable tasks to complete. We’ll explore those tasks, ideas for being developmentally-savvy therapists, and what can happen when tasks go undone.
- An Attachment Reframe: Attachment styles impact every therapeutic interaction. With that in mind, we’ll examine ways attachment shows up in sessions, strategies for navigating insecure attachments in teens, and how our own attachment styles matter, too.
- A Trauma Reframe: We’ll deepen our understanding of trauma, including common impacts of untreated trauma exposure, differences between trauma-informed and trauma-specific therapy, and ways trauma adaptations can masquerade as resistance.
These three reframes help us reconsider a teen’s apparent resistance — and in the process, turn that so-called resistance into actionable treatment goals. Sometimes though, teens don’t engage because change seems too hard, risky, or pointless. In the second part of this workshop, we’ll explore this Stuckness, including the role of risk avoidance, learned helplessness, and stalled identity formation.
Along the way, we’ll consider the role of therapeutic alliance, self-as-therapist, and a variety of field-tested strategies for helping teens moving forward. Packed with stories from the field, practical approaches, and even some laughs, this workshop could transform how you work with teens.
Learning Objective 1: Attendees will examine treatment resistance among teens using developmental, attachment, and trauma perspectives. This includes identifying practical clinical strategies for improving engagement, willingness, and treatment outcomes.
Learning Objective 2: Attendees will explore the idea of Stuckness, including the role of risk avoidance, learned helplessness, and stalled identity formation. They will also consider relevant ideas from existential psychotherapy.
Learning Objective 3: Attendees will consider the role of therapeutic alliance in overcoming treatment reluctance. They will also identify and practice several field-tested approaches for cultivating rapport with treatment reluctant teens.
My most popular daylong workshop, Reframing Resistance is typically scheduled to run 9:00am to 4:30pm, with an hour lunch and two 15-minute breaks. Due it’s highly interactive design, it’s offered in-person only.
MINDFULNESS WITH TEENS
Research shows that practicing mindfulness can be extremely helpful to those challenged by depression anxiety, ADHD, substance use disorders, and more.
However, the abstract nature of mindfulness can make it challenging to teach in ways that are meaningful and translate into the daily lives of any teen clients. In fact, those clients who would find mindfulness the most difficult to practice – due to significant impulse control issues, extreme hyper-vigilance, or chronic chaos-making behaviors – are among those who would most benefit from it.
Our task as helpers, then, is to present mindfulness in ways that are concrete, accessible, and sometimes even fun! In this workshop, we’ll develop the knowledge and skills necessary to do just that by:
- Defining Mindfulness: To start this highly interactive presentation, we’ll review the evidence supporting clinical applications of mindfulness, consider practical strategies for facilitating mindfulness in others, and identify ideas for integrating mindfulness into our own work as professional helpers.
- Trauma-Informed Mindfulness: Standard approaches to mindfulness can inadvertently trigger flashbacks, severe anxiety, or dissociation. With that in mind, we’ll spend time exploring field-tested strategies for shaping mindfulness in ways that decrease these concerns and help make mindfulness more accessible to all teen clients.
- Applied Mindfulness: We’ll engage in over a dozen treatment-appropriate activities for both individual and group settings. Based on participant interests, these can include activities for exploring everyday mindfulness, improving emotion regulation, managing intrusive thoughts, building sobriety skills, and more.
Attendees should come prepared to move around, play games, and maybe laugh even laugh a bit. After all, nobody said mindfulness has to be boring.
Learning Objective 1: Attendees will review evidence supporting the use of mindfulness with teens, develop practical skills for integrating mindfulness into both individual and group sessions, and consider the importance of their own mindfulness practice.
Learning Objective 2: Attendees will consider the importance of being trauma aware when facilitating mindfulness activities with teen clients. This will include identifying specific steps we can take to decrease concerns of re-traumatizing all clients.
Learning Objective 3: Attendees will explore specific strategies for integrating mindfulness into the treatment of depression, anxiety, substance use disorders, impulsive behaviors., and other common presenting concerns.
Learning Objective 4: Attendees will engage in over a dozen field-tested treatment-appropriate activities that help make mindfulness concrete, accessible, and effective when working with teens.
This workshop is typically scheduled to run 9:00am to 4:30pm, with an hour lunch and two 15-minute breaks. Due it’s highly interactive design, it’s offered in-person only.
CULTIVATING RAPPORT: BUILDING TRANSFORMATIVE THERAPEUTIC ALLIANCES 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 more.
Learning Objective 1: Attendees will review evidence regarding the importance of therapeutic alliance, identify common reasons teens are often reluctant to engage in treatment, and examine relevant developmental considerations.
Learning Objective 2: Attendees will explore the role of therapist trustworthiness, identify behaviors that demonstrate trustworthiness, and examine the role of self-disclosure in cultivating rapport with teen participants.
Learning Objective 3: Attendees will develop and practice at least five practical skills to increase the willingness of teens to engage in counseling services.
This workshop is three hours long. It can be offered online or in-person.
MY BRAIN HATES ME! ADDRESSING INTRUSIVE THOUGHTS IN TEENS AND EMERGING ADULTS
Description and learning objectives coming soon, but feel free to contact me for details about this presentation.
This workshop is three hours long. It can be offered in-person or online.