Categories: General
Date: Jan 15, 2010
Title: At-Risk Youth Part IV
By Sonya M. Thompkins and Robert C. Schwartz, PhD
Recent evidence suggests that personal resilience can have positive therapeutic implications for guiding youth at risk toward improved coping skills and enhanced functional outcomes. Various clinical issues presented by child and adolescent clients are particularly challenging for psychotherapists. It is not uncommon for psychotherapists to feel helplessness, frustration and confusion regarding the issues that children and adolescents manifest in therapy.
Research suggests that resilience improves social problem-solving skills, reduces the effects of stress, and increases self-esteem and self-confidence (Capuzzi & Gross, 2008). According to Kobasa (1979) some of the positive characteristics of resilient people include viewing change or stress as an opportunity, being more committed to facing a challenge, and recognizing limits to environmental control (perhaps related to an internal locus of control). Rutter (1985) proposed that more resilient individuals seek the support of others, have closer and more secure attachment to others, have greater self-efficacy, demonstrate a proactive approach to dealing with life issues, and display a more pronounced sense of humor. It appears that, psychotherapeutically, all of these factors, if strengthened, could enhance the lives of youth at risk. Lyons (1991) asserted that patience and tolerance of negative affects are inherent in resilient individuals. Finally, Connor and Davidson (2003) added that optimism and faith are characteristics of resilient persons. It is therefore important that psychotherapists consider these attributes as part of what can help at-risk youth become more resilient and less vulnerable to psychosocial adversity.
Implications for Psychotherapists
Because youth at risk are by definition exposed to behavioral, familial, educational, and societal adversity, these individuals often present in psychotherapy as unmotivated, defiant, oppositional, and possibly hostile. The potentially explosive combination of prior trauma, current maladaptive coping styles, and reduced personal resilience can make it difficult to develop a therapeutic relationship which does not elicit anger, resentment of authority, or rebellion. As Hanna and Hunt (1999) stated, “Adolescents [especially youth at risk] are among the most difficult of all the various populations that present themselves in therapy. Within a very short time frame, adolescents can be insulting, spiteful, charming, lovable, conniving, compelling, and deceitful” (p. 56). This sentiment is echoed by Hanna, Hanna, and Keys (1999), who noted that youth at risk are often extremely difficult to engage fully in therapy, even for the most well-trained and skilled psychotherapists. These challenges implore the question, “How can psychotherapists connect with and motivate (at-risk) youth in order to build resilience during the psychotherapeutic process?” Clinical wisdom must be developed and implemented in order to successfully work through client opposition, competing negative environmental influences. Often precarious behavior patterns can potentially make or break effective treatment (Hanna & Hunt, 1999).
General Interventions for Psychotherapists
Due to the numerous issues faced by youth at risk, it is often difficult to know, in reliable terms, which treatment approaches best fit each at-risk behavior. This validates the need for general interventions to be available to psychotherapists to use with all youth at risk. The following general interventions cut across all professional orientations, demographics, client characteristics and clinical diagnoses.
Tags: Robert O'Block, Psychotherapy, youth at risk, at-risk youth, resilience