This presentation will equip clinicians with the skills to address the unique challenges of psychotherapy with teenagers. Dr. Damour will illustrate how the evaluation phase can be used to engage adolescents, especially reluctant ones, in the process of treatment and to negotiate an appropriate working relationship with the adolescent’s parents. Participants will then consider how to evaluate and treat teenagers in light of a novel framework for understanding the developmental tasks of adolescence.
Learning Objectives:
As a result of attending this program, participants will be able to:
1) utilize information from the initial phone call to determine the adolescent's level of interest, who should attend the first appointment, explain the evaluation process and build an appropriate relationship with the parents.
2) utilize the evaluation phase to determine who should be attending psychotherapy (the adolescent, the parents, both) and communicate respect for the teenager's wishes.
3) develop a working relationship with the adolescent's parents while maintaining the teenager's confidentiality and trust.
4) discuss how therapeutic techniques with teenagers can differ from techniques used with children and adults.
5) apply the seven developmental lines of adolescence in making assessments.
6) apply specific clinical techniques for helping adolescents move ahead in the developmental lines where they are stuck or lagging behind.
Lisa Damour, PhD, directs Laurel School’s Center for Research on Girls, maintains a private psychotherapy practice, contributes frequently to the New York Times’ Motherlode blog, and is a clinical instructor at Case Western Reserve University. Her book about adolescent development will be published by Random House in 2016.
