The Importance of Engagement for Teenagers

Teens in Therapy: Making It on their own: Engaging Adolescents in Successful Therapy for Responsible Lives

Gladding, S. T. (2010). Family therapy: History, theory, and practice (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson.

Family Therapy can be implemented in a different ways in a program that provides a facet of services, but it’s imperative that the approaches used are appropriate for the individual or families utilizing services. Functional Family Therapy is used to help deal with substance abuse in families but can also be used to assist with behavioral issues in children. A well rounded family service program can not only use this one approach but utilize other approaches to meet the needs of the population being served. And while implementing the service ethics will play a major role in the therapy being providing.

"Furthermore, Selekman believed there are assumptions that benefit those who deal with resistant adolescents and their families. The assumptions are extremely practical and provide therapists a new lens for viewing the tough adolescent case. Each of the guiding assumptions provides a wellness perspective on adolescent problems, families, and brief therapy. Matching our treatment to the state of change will foster a cooperative relationship. Therapists must specify the level of the change. That is the key to adolescent resistance. Next positive relabeling can describe a withdrawn adolescent as a thoughtful teenager" (2005, p. 32).

Family is something that plays a tremendous role in our life. Even though the structure of families has changed over the years, it is important to acknowledge that there many families out there whether they are traditional families, nuclear family, stepfamilies or others which tend to have different types of problems in their families. Therefore, many families attempt to go to family therapy in order for them to obtain help in solving the different types of issues they might have at home. As stated in the book Family Therapy by Michael P. Nichols (2013), “The power of family therapy derives from bringing parents and children together to transform their interaction… What keeps people stuck in their inability to see their own participation in the problems that plague them. With eyes fixed firmly on what recalcitrant others are doing, it’s hard for most people to see the patterns that bind them together. The family therapist’s job is to give them a wake-up call” (2013).

Systematic family therapy is aimed at professional counsellors and healthcare staff offering counselling skills. Its origins derived from earlier works in the 1950’s Stratton (2011) and the emphasis of systematic therapy was placed on understanding psychological difficulties within relationships (Boston, 2000). Systematic Family therapy has being identified as very effective (Stratton , 2011). However some criticisms suggest that it may be less effective than individual therapy if working with children or adolescents (Stratton, 2011).

For my senior year field placement, I am currently working at Elwyn’s Media campus in the Children’s Behavioral Health Services Outpatient program. At the outpatient program I am working with the Director of Clinical Operations, Ellen Chung. I also work with Jennifer Torrey who is the Clinical Coordinator for Elwyn’s Media location’s Outpatient program. I also work one on one with the Outpatient Case Manager, Shaneen Brown. I am also working in the Therapeutic After School Program (TASP). At the TASP I work with the Case Manager Jennifer Ziegler and the Clinical Case Manager Denise Georganas. The outpatient therapy team at Elwyn is a multidisciplinary team that works to help children reach their fullest potential. Some services offered by the Outpatient program at Elwyn are psychiatric evaluations, individual therapy, group therapy, family therapy, medication management, client/family education and community resources. The goal of the Therapeutic Socialization Program is to facilitate socialization and communication skills and to decrease problematic behaviors through participation in fun and engaging in activities. This program is based on the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis and other proven approaches to develop individually tailored treatment protocols to help children, adolescents and young adults in the areas of socialization, self-regulation and communication. The TASP also focuses on providing parents with new information to better understand their child’s

My first assumption of family therapy was to involve the parents and the individual that had the problem. This book explored further what it

Family therapy is a technique that has many alternative approaches to every aspect of treatment which Nichols (2014), states may present a challenge when describing a basic technique. The two models of family therapy in which I feel that I would be most effective and comfortable with would be, experiential family therapy and solution-focused brief therapy. I feel most comfortable with these models because, I adapt to the role of the therapist of both therapies naturally. According to Nichols (2014), when families seek therapy they are stuck in a life-cycle transition, sometimes they are obvious and sometimes they are not obvious. I’ve found that during the first session an excellent question is to ask the client why now so that they can

Haley and Madanes’ approach to strategic family therapy argues that change occurs through the process of the family carrying out assignments issued by the therapist. As described in Madanes’ Strategic Family Therapy (1981), “strategic therapists attempt to design a therapeutic strategy for each specific problem.” Therapists issue directives that are designed to shift the framework of the family to resolve the displaying problem. Treatment of these issues would include intense involvement, carefully planned interventions designed to reach clear goals, frequent use of therapist-generated directives or assignments, and paradoxical procedures.

The family is made up of five people: Claudia, the IP; Carolyn, mother; Laura, the sister; Don, the brother; and David, the father. The family is coming into therapy because there have been mounting concerns about Claudia and her behavior—acting out, staying out late, some fairly typical teenage stuff. For the purpose of this paper, I will be starting at the beginning where the family is first coming into therapy. I will first school that I will apply is Structural Family Therapy and the second school is Bowen Family Therapy.

1. In general the purpose of the Functional Family Therapy Program is a short-term family-based prevention and intervention treatment applied across various context for treatment of at-risk and juvenile adolescents to address delinquent and behavior problems in hopes to modify community relations. The specific activities offered by the program are develop systemic and individualized family-based orientation to address behavioral problems of at-risk and juvenile delinquent adolescents. Participants then undergo three specific intervention phases in sequence: engagement and motivation, behavior change, and generalization. Each phase holds goals with assessment objectives, addressing different risk and protective aspects necessary for specific techniques from professions to address family and individual disruption.

therapy aims to improve family relations, and the family is encouraged to become a type of

Becvar, D. & Becvar R. (2009). Family therapy: a systemic integration. (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education.

This essay is intended to evaluate one therapeutic intervention or theory that may be used in Family therapy. The theory being examined is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or for short CBT. The essay will begin with defining CBT and discussing the underlying principles, techniques and concepts of the approach. Some practical examples and scenarios of utilizing CBT will then be explored. Then the essay will proceed to a discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of this therapeutic intervention. Finally a conclusion regarding employing such techniques will be made.