by janetedgette | Mar 15, 2023 | Coaching kids and teens, Teenagers
1. ”Insight is important for change.” Not really. In fact, I think that a lot of the tasks associated with acquiring insight distract from the more immediate task of therapy, that is, getting kids to feel better or do things differently, or to think about things or...
by janetedgette | Feb 15, 2023 | Coaching kids and teens, Teenagers
1. Trying to motivate the teenager to change Sometimes we’re the only one of two people in the room who care about what happens. This, in itself, is enough to make us work twice as hard. That’s a problem. Many therapists believe you need motivated client in order for...
by janetedgette | Jan 18, 2023 | Boy behavior, Coaching kids and teens, Parent-Teen communication, Parenting teens, Teenagers
Oh, Let Me Count the Ways… 1. Many of the teenagers we see have not asked to be in therapy (although that is changing in the wake of the youth mental health movement). They were brought by parents or other caregivers or sent there by their school or the courts...
by janetedgette | Nov 15, 2022 | Parent-Child communication, Parent-Teen communication, Parenting, Parenting teens, Parenting young children, Teenagers, Teens and school
When it comes to selecting indicators of a child’s favorable prospective adjustment to adult life, many Americans educators and parents have opted for the measurable and binary kinds—grades, class rankings, RBIs, how many extracurriculars, uses drugs or doesn’t, in...
by janetedgette | Oct 15, 2022 | Coaching kids and teens, Teenagers
What’s the worst response we could give a young client when asked a question that’s personal but not inappropriate? “We’re here to talk about you, not me.” The worst. And I was taught in graduate school to say that! Believe me, having gone through a psychology...
by janetedgette | Sep 15, 2022 | Boy behavior, Coaching kids and teens, Teenagers
When we first learned about therapy in graduate school and the importance of a good therapeutic alliance, our attention was directed toward a small but unwavering group of principles that were understood to be critical in fostering this connection. We were taught to...
