Brief Behavioural Activation for Adolescent Depression

This step-by-step guide to Brief Behavioural Activation (Brief BA) provides everything practitioners need to use this approach with adolescents. It is suitable for new practitioners as well as those who are more experienced.

Brief BA is a straightforward, structured and effective intervention for treating adolescents showing symptoms of depression, focusing on helping young people to recover through doing more of what matters to them.

This practical manual contains guidance on how to deliver Brief BA at every stage, photocopiable activities and worksheets for the client and their parents, and a section on the research and theory behind the approach. It includes information and advice on how to assess adolescent depression, get to know the young person and their priorities better and help them to do more of what matters.

Professor Shirley Reynolds is Director of the Charlie Waller Institute and Professor of Evidence Based Psychological Therapies at the University of Reading. She has a special interest in mental health difficulties experienced in adolescence, and has led a number of large randomised controlled trials into the effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for young people. Twitter: @DrS_Reynolds

Dr Laura Pass is Research Clinical Psychologist at the Charlie Waller Institute at the University of Reading, and Clinical Lecturer at the University of East Anglia. She has a particular interest in adolescent depression, and is leading a research study exploring emotional health in secondary schools, and how psychological treatments for low mood can be delivered in this setting. She has presented and delivered workshops at a number of international conferences, and is a regular external trainer for a number of courses for new mental health practitioners. Twitter: @DrLauraPass