Resourcing Your Inner Adolescent

This workshop is an excellent companion workshop to Rebels with a Cause: Working with Adolescents Using Action Techniques, or one that can be attended on its own. It explores the unresolved issues of adolescence that are carried by adults who are youth-serving professionals (teachers, guidance counselors, school administrators, youth-group leaders, etc.) and the impact these issues have on the work they do. A deeper understanding of these issues and the types of incidents that trigger unresolved material can provide a strong foundation for youth-serving professionals. Combined with a better grounding in the developmental realities of the adolescent experience and strategies for utilizing awareness around one’s own issues, youth-servicing professional improve their abilities to be effective.

Format: This workshop uses didactic presentations, experiential activities, and discussions/ processing to support participants in learning to recognize and work consciously with their own unresolved adolescent issues. It provides grounding in the developmental realities of the adolescent experience and strategies for utilizing awareness around one’s own issues in service of clients.

Participants: This workshop is designed for any professional who works in any capacity and primarily with adolescent students/ clients.

Outcomes – Participants will be able to:

  • identify their own unresolved adolescent issues and the ways in which the issues impact their lives and work;
  • describe ways that their issues may either serve and/or hinder the work they do;
  • explain strategies for working effectively when personal issues are triggered; and
  • articulate a self-care strategy for the future.

Logistics: This training can be offered as a full-day workshop with 6-7 hours of workshop time that includes a lunch break, a two-day workshop with 6-7 hours the first day and 5-6 the second, or a full weekend, including a Friday night introduction. Start and end times are negotiable. Space needs include a room that is large enough to accommodate the people involved that has movable chairs with tables off to the side. We also need a blackboard or whiteboard and appropriate chalk / markers. Art activities can be incorporated and would, then, require art supplies.