What Works with Teens: A Professional's Guide to Engaging Authentically with Adolescents to Achieve Lasting Change

by Britt H. Rathbone MSSW, LCSW-C, Julie B. Baron MSW, LCSW-C, Rosalind Wiseman (Foreword by)

Overview

Two clinical social workers offer clinicians, educators, coaches, and other youth counselors the first professional book that focuses on engaging authentically with teens in order to create lasting change. Anyone who works with teens should read this book. 

 If you work with teens, you know they are notoriously challenging to communicate with. And when teens are resistant to help, they may respond by acting defiant, guarded, defensive, rude, or even outright hostile. In turn, you may respond by reasserting your authority—resulting in an endless power struggle. So how can you break the cycle and start connecting?

 In What Works with Teens, you’ll discover the core skills that research shows underlie all effective work with teens. You'll learn how to engage authentically with teens, create an atmosphere of mutual respect, and use humor to establish a deeper connection. Many books offer evidence-based approaches to treating teens, but very little information on how to establish and maintain a productive working relationship. This is the first trans-therapeutic book to provide real tools for creating a positive relationship with teens to help bolster effective treatment.

 Whether your background is in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), psychotherapy, or any other treatment background, if you are looking for more effective ways to connect with teens and are ready for a program that really works, this book is a vital addition to your professional library.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781626250772
Publisher:	New Harbinger Publications
Publication date:	04/01/2015
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	1,105,591
Product dimensions:	6.90(w) x 9.90(h) x 2.20(d)

About the Author

Britt H. Rathbone, MSSW, LCSW-C, is an expert in adolescent mental health, and has worked exclusively with adolescents and their families since obtaining his degree from Columbia University in New York. He has worked in many settings, including urban programs for at-risk youth, nonprofit agencies, juvenile justice, and schools. Rathbone is currently the director of a private practice specializing in adolescent mental health issues. In this setting, he treats adolescents with evidence-based approaches whenever possible. Rathbone has a special interest in providing services to young people who are suspicious of mental health care and who may be reluctant to engage in treatment. He is committed to disseminating the skills and ideas that will allow all adolescents to have the opportunity to receive quality mental health care and to thrive. Rathbone teaches graduate students, speaks frequently on issues of adolescence to lay and professional audiences, trains therapists, and consults to schools. He is consistently recognized as a top therapist for adolescents, and media outlets often seek him out for interviews when issues about adolescents are in the news. Rathbone is coauthor of Dialectical Behavior Therapy for At-Risk Adolescents.
 
Julie B. Baron, MSW, LCSW-C, is a licensed clinical social worker with expertise in treating adolescents and their families. Baron received her master’s in social work from Boston University School of Social Work. She has worked with children, adolescents, and families in community-based mental health clinics, residential treatment, home-based settings, public and private school settings, and in private practice for over twenty years. Baron is known for providing effective treatment strategies in a manner that engages and empowers adolescents and their families toward meaningful change. Baron has written articles and provides trainings and workshops to parents, teens, school faculty, and mental health professionals on issues relevant to working with adolescents, including adolescent social culture, bullying, and technology. She has particular knowledge and experience in understanding different learning styles and disabilities, as well as a variety of social, emotional, and behavioral issues affecting children and adolescents. As a school counselor, she developed and implemented comprehensive programming toward creating and maintaining safe and respectful learning communities. Baron is a member of the National Association of Social Workers, and provides individual, group, and family therapy—as well as school advocacy services—at Rathbone and Associates in Rockville, MD.
 
Foreword writer Rosalind Wiseman is author of Queen Bees and Wannabes—the groundbreaking, best-selling book that was the basis for the movie Mean Girls.

Table of Contents

Foreword vii

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction 1

Part 1 Welcome to the World of Adolescence

1 The Adolescent Operating System (A-OS) 5

2 Adolescents Don't Come with a Users Manual 21

3 The Value of the Relationship 33

Part 2 Putting the Skills to Work

4 Respect 55

5 Authenticity 79

6 Kindness 115

7 Predictability 137

8 Acceptance 159

9 Change 185

Conclusion: A Call to Action 205

References 209

Index 217

Interviews

Rathbone resides in Chevy Chase, MD; Baron resides in Potomac, MD.

Editorial Reviews

In What Works with Teens, Rathbone and Baron have pulled back the curtain on relating successfully with teenagers, and ably demonstrate the understated yet incontrovertible power of thoughtfulness, graciousness, and courtesy in influencing behavior change among youth. These authors understand what teenagers have always known but have been unable to articulate: that what really makes us credible and trustworthy as mentors, helpers, and sources of inspiration doesn’t derive from our pointed explanations or advice, but rather from our ability to make a young person feel validated and respected in our presence. … This is a terrific book, deserving of attention from therapists, counselors, parents, coaches, and the people teaching our next generation of mental health providers. I know of no other book like it and consider it a very valuable addition to the literature on counseling, parenting, teaching, and simply caring for adolescents.”
—Janet Sasson Edgette, PsyD, child and adolescent psychologist, author of Stop Negotiating with Your Teen, and coauthor of The Last Boys Picked


“Rathbone and Baron have written an eminently readable and practical guide for working compassionately and mindfully with troubled teens. In this book, you will find a toolbox overflowing with wonderful, evidence-based strategies for establishing—and maintaining—an authentic and transformative connection with even the most challenging adolescents.”
—Martha B. Straus, PhD, professor of clinical psychology at Antioch University New England and author of Adolescent Girls in Crisis: Intervention and Hope

From the Publisher