Adolescent Therapy That Really Works: Helping Kids Who Never Asked for Help in the First Place (Norton Professional Books (Paperback))

"I can thoroughly recommend it to any educational and child psychologist who has frequent eyeball-to-eyeball contact with adolescents and who wishes to develop a functional, but supportive, working relationship and adopt a balanced position between the needs of the school and those of a young person finding their way into adulthood." ―DECP Debate

Edgette proposes a unique approach to relating to adolescents in therapy. Focusing on establishing genuine and unaffected relationships between therapists and teens, this book offers techniques for clinicians who want to engage and connect with their adolescent clients. The goal is to bring about conversations that are candid and therapeutically effective so that teens and their families can find dignified and durable solutions to their problems. Case examples and stories from Edgette’s own practice illustrate how therapists can successfully navigate difficult encounters, avert power struggles, and avoid dead-end dialogues that bore teenage clients and stall treatment. Thorough and lucidly written, Adolescent Therapy That Really Works shows therapist how to become partners with their clients, maintain their authority while also drawing teens into comfortable conversation, and read body language and facial expressions to better convey understanding and respect. Every therapist who works with adolescents and their families will benefit from the wisdom, skill, and honesty exhibited in Edgette’s therapeutic approach.