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From: John Tetnowski
Date: 05 Oct 2011
Time: 11:15:36 -0500
Remote Name: 130.70.138.144
Lindsey, Great question. Early in my career, I made a decision that I was not going to work with teens because of their lack of motivation.....now it is my favorite group to work with in therapy. First, I think that we have to let them know that therapy and change is their responsibility, not their parent's responsibility. The teens that I see are responsible for their tasks, homework, etc. I have found that treating them like adults, gives them confidence and pride in what they are doing. Another thing that I have learned is that "if they do not want to be in therapy right now" there is little we can do about it. Often, the parents want them to be in therapy, but they do not want to be there themselves. In those cases, I make a deal with the teen and the family. The deal is this, "you do not have to come to therapy right now, as long as you come to our self-help/support group once a month". This keeps them engaged until they are ready. Speaking of groups, the accountability to the group is very important for teens. Getting them into groups is important. Recently, we also added another level to our group that helps. It is difficult to get kids/teens to the group for the first time, so we started doing a parent group that breaks off of the main group during our time. We ask parents to come even if their kids/teens do not attend. Within a short time the kids/teens start coming with their parents. I have also found that parents begin to understand the commitment much better.....it is not the old medical model of "I'll drop off my kid and pick him up when you have fixed him". Even though the teens are resposnible for their own work, it is the parent's responsibility to get them to therapy/ group. Kids don't miss soccer games. if the parent can't get them to a game, they arrange for a ride some other way. I like to set the same expectations for therapy. I also must add that it is our resposnibility to the parents to explain therapy goals and expectations. It is the teen's responisbility, but the parents need to know the overall plan and should be invited to watch and participate on a regular basis. But tehy need to know that it is their kid's responsibility to complete tasks, etc. It is like the middle school and high school science projects that we see. If the parents build the project, it looks great, but the teen learned very little. Let the parents watch and help, but the teen needs to build the project themselves in order to learn. This is the same with stuttering therapy. I feel like I am rambling now, so I will stop. Any of the professors could probably write hundreds of pages on this topic. Feel free to contact me off-line for more ideas. Great question! John Tetnowski