These workshops 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 include topics such as fostering therapeutic alliance, practical strategies for facilitating change, and creative approaches to counseling teens.
Offerings include:
- Reframing Resistance: Maybe teens aren’t stubborn, oppositional, or in denial
- Cultivating Rapport: How to build therapeutic alliances with teens
- Change Happens: Helping teens move from ambivalence to action
- My Brain Hates Me: Addressing intrusive thoughts in teens and emerging adults
- Holy Therapy, Batman! The use of use of superhero metaphors when counseling 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 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.
Learning Objective 1: Attendees will reconceptualize resistance among teens using developmental, attachment, and trauma lenses. This includes using these lenses to explore practical strategies to improve engagement, willingness, and treatment outcomes.
Learning Objective 2: Attendees will examine the idea of Stuckness, including common exacerbating factors such as stalled identity development, developmental debt, and other obstacles to change.
Learning Objective 3: Attendees will review current research related to treatment reluctance among teens, the importance of trauma-informed strategies, and the role of therapeutic alliance when working with this population.
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 more.
CHANGE HAPPENS: 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 briefly review the neuroscience of it all.
Learning Objective 1: Attendees will deepen their understanding of the Stages of Change and Motivational Interviewing, two evidence-based approaches to facilitating change.
Learning Objective 2: Attendees will explore several field-tested interventions to foster engagement, increase willingness, and help teens move through the process of change.
Learning Objective 3: Attendees will identify relevant neuroscience concepts about the change process, including practical ways to apply these ideas in clinical settings.
MY BRAIN HATES ME: ADDRESSING INTRUSIVE THOUGHTS IN TEENS AND EMERGING ADULTS
Description coming soon.
HOLY THERAPY, BATMAN! THE USE OF SUPERHERO METAPHORS WHEN COUNSELING TEENS
In this highly interactive workshop, we’ll explore field-tested applications of superhero imagery and metaphors when counseling adolescents — to help make important treatment concepts more meaningful, increase engagement, and improve treatment outcomes. Strategies examined integrate evidence-based approaches, best practices in adolescent treatment, and the presenter’s own clinical experience from over two decades providing counseling to youth and young adults.
Learning Objective 1: Attendees will explore several specific uses of superhero metaphors appropriate for use with adolescents in various treatment settings — including metaphors for exploring trauma impacts, grief, moral injury, and existential anxiety.
Learning Objective 2: Attendees will be able to identify practical strategies for introducing and integrating superhero metaphors into individual and group counseling sessions.
Learning Objective 3: Attendees will examine the role of nerd culture and fandoms in helping adolescent clients build therapeutic alliance, strengthen peer relationships, and create community.