Book Request Thread

[BellaPsyD]

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I know we have a "Must Read" thread, but I figured it may be good to start on for requests on specific topics.

I'll start:

I need books on working with difficult adolescents. My practicum recently lost adult funding and switched the entire building over to adolescents- something I have little experience with! The building is residential addiction treatment. My kids are all court mandated (many of them are murderers, etc.), addicted to substances (marijuana being the most common), and don't think there's a damn thing "wrong" with them. I'm sure you can all guess that it's common that many of these kids were abused, neglected, etc. It's just difficult to get them to the point where they can begin to access those buried feelings. Sooooo, any book recommendations would be very appreciated!

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

Interesting thread.

It may help if you could share what kind of model (or models) they use there. One of the challenges working with adol. substance abuse (and sub. abuse in general) is that it is often normalized and fully accepted by friends, family, community, etc.

Since you mentioned having limited experience with the population, I listed a few things I've learned along the way, though it admittedly is not a population I work with much anymore.

1. Learn the language....as the terminology is far evolved from "pot", "coke", etc. I considered myself pretty up to date, and I quickly realized there is was entire vernacular that I needed to learn. Google and other staff members are invaulable in this arena. I remember asking a colleague about, "off the chain" (it means Awesome....or for children of the 80's...Rad 😀 )

2. The hard outside is typically a front and/or survival...so don't take anything personally. I was frustrated in the beginning because it was obvious they needed help, but were often unwilling to do anything because of fear how it would see, giving up power, having to think/feel, etc. The vast majority of kids I worked with weren't bad kids, they just did some bad things.

3. Consistancy. Everything I've read on the subject talked about consistency, as it is linked to respect and trust. I had a longterm case that took a good 4-5 sessions for the adol. to be honest about his situation. He eventually admitted that he was waiting for me to give up on him, which was quite in contrast to the front he first presented.

4. A small win is still a win. A former colleague of mine use to talk about a long-term case he had where the smallest things were victories (avoiding a "mark"/demerit for a day). Eventually those small victories grew and while the kid was far from out of the woods, he was able to realize some noticeable change (decided to leave his gang, fought less/talked more, stopped dealing, etc).

 

[BellaPsyD]

^ those are really good tips. I especially appreciate #2. I didn't think about how talking to me can be seen as giving up power. Very interesting point. It actually frames therapy in a new way somewhat and gives me some ideas to work with.

As for models, the site allows us to pick what we want to use. I don't necessarily need to work on the addiction (there are substance abuse counselors there for that), I'm there for everything else (of course, we can work on the SA if the adol. wants to). I tend to operate best with a cognitive behavioral approach. Being teenagers and possibly less introspective, I've read that CBT is a good approach in general with them? I'm hoping if I get anyone long term (they enjoy leaving ASA a lot), I can begin a shift to introspection, but as I said- I'm new in this area and any advice/help/books is greatly appreciated!