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

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.

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.