Psychotherapy for adolescents

1. Psychotherapies for Adolescents
Muhammad Musawar Ali
MPHIL, ICAP
Psychmmusawarali@gmail.com

2. • Adolescence is the name given to the
psychosocial life stage which starts around the
time of puberty.
• The time of onset and duration varies from one
person to another commonly occur between 12-
18 years.
• It is difficult period of considerable physical and
mental changes.
• Adolescents requires special understanding and
social, psychological and health care.

3. Environmental Settings
YOUTH
Peers
Com
m
unity
School
Fam
ily
Neighborhood
Media/
Internet

4. • The body appearance affecting self-
esteem and confidence.
• Adolescence is a critical period in the
human life. It affects people future habits
and practice

5. • Establishing healthy habits at a young age
is critical because changing poor eating
patterns in adulthood can be difficult.

6. Adolescence Pattern
• Early adolescence (11-14 years):
–Puberty period.
–Dominated by adjustment to physical and
psychosexual changes and beginnings of
psychological independence from parents.
–Girls > Boys.

7. Middle adolescence (14-17 years):
–Search for independence period.
–Sexual relationships.
–Intellectual knowledge and cognitive
processes became quite sophisticated.
–Experimental and risk-taking behavior is a
feature.

8. • Late adolescence (17-20 years):
–Maturity period.
–Self-confidence with relationships
–Successful rapport with parent.
–Thought is more reality-based.

9. Problems
• Harmones problems
• Hormones affect your teenager not only
physically but also emotionally
• Emotions can lead to impulsive behavior,
which can be harmful to your child as
well as others
• Substance Use and Abuse
• Educational challenges

10. • Health problems
• Eating disorders
• Addiction to cyberspace
• Aggression and violence
• Psychological problems

11. Psychotherapy for Adolescents
Different Types
• Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT)
• Expressive art therapy
• Reality therapy
• Career counciling therapy
• Family Therapy
• Group Therapy
• Interpersonal Therapy (IPT)

12. Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT)
• Helps improve a child's moods, anxiety, and
behavior by examining confused or distorted
patterns of thinking. CBT therapists teach
person that thoughts cause feelings and
moods which can influence behavior. During
CBT, a person learns to identify harmful
thought patterns.

13. Cont.....
• CBT can be used to treat older adolescents who
have chronic suicidal feelings/thoughts, engage
in intentionally self-harmful behaviors, or have
Borderline Personality Disorder.
• CBT is directive, time-limited, structured,
problem-focused, and goal-oriented.
• Treatment typically ranges from 4 to 20
sessions, although treatment of comorbid
conditions or severe symptoms can take longer.

14. Cont...
• The therapist then helps the person
replace this thinking with thoughts that
result in more appropriate feelings and
behaviors. Research shows that CBT can
be effective in treating a variety of
conditions, including depression and
anxiety.

15.  Common CBT interventions include
psychoeducation (helping the patient and
parents understand the connection between
thoughts, feelings, and behaviors), mood
monitoring (keeping a mood diary, linking
emotions to thoughts), pleasant activities
(creating a list of activities that the patient
enjoys and setting aside daily time to
engage in them)

17. Family Therapy
• focuses on helping the family function in
more positive and constructive ways by
exploring patterns of communication and
providing support and education. Family
therapy sessions can include the child or
adolescent along with parents, siblings,
and Grandparents

18. Group Therapy
• is a form of psychotherapy where there are
multiple patients led by one or more therapists.
It uses the power of group dynamics and peer
interactions to increase understanding of
mental illness and/or improve social skills.
There are many different types of group
therapy (e.g. psychodynamic, social skills,
substance abuse, multi-family, parent support,
etc.).

19. Goals of group therapy are:
• Help Individuals Identify Maladaptive
Behavior
• Help with Emotional Difficulties through
Feedback
• Offer a Supportive Environment

20. Cont....
The purpose is to teach group participant
how to deal with a potential thread (catching
the flu), developmental life events (growing
older) or immediate life crisis (death of love one)
Mostly used in educational setting but
frequently used in hospital, mental health
center, or social service agencies

21. Interpersonal Therapy (IPT)
• is a brief treatment specifically developed and
tested for depression, but also used to treat a
variety of other clinical conditions. IPT
therapists focus on how interpersonal events
affect an individual's emotional state.
Individual difficulties are framed in
interpersonal terms, and then problematic
relationships are addressed.

22. • IPT aims to improve communication and
problem-solving skills to increase
interpersonal effectiveness and relationship
satisfaction in adolescents (aged 12 to 18
years). From a developmental
psychopathology perspective, focus on
interpersonal relationships is paramount
during adolescence

23. Behavioral therapy
• Behavioral therapy is a treatment that helps
change potentially self-destructing behaviors.
It is also called behavioral modification . As its
name suggests, behavioral therapy is focused
on human behaviour and looks to eradicate
unwanted or maladaptive behaviour.

24. • Help the client to make adjustment to life
circumstances and achieve personal and
professional objectives.
• Modifying or eliminating the maladaptive
behaviors and helping them to acquire
healthy, constructive ways of acting.
• Unproductive should be replaced with
productive ways of responding.
• Should be mutually agreed on goals.

25. Dialectical behavior therapy
• DBT was developed by Linehan in the early
1990s. It is based on her extensive clinical and
research experience in treating chronically
suicidal women. The approach was originally
aimed at treating borderline personality
disorder (BPD), of which chronic suicidality is a
major feature.

26. Cont.....
• Although experts have suggested that
BPD can be meaningfully diagnosed in
adolescents, historically, personality
disorders were not diagnosed in persons
younger than 18. Thus, DBT for
adolescents (DBT-A) was targeted
specifically at suicidality, as opposed to
BPD

27. Cont...
specific DBT-A programs may seek to
identify adolescents with multiple problem
behaviors (mood symptoms, self-harm,
substance abuse, eating disorder, risky sexual
behavior, high-risk activities, and problem
behaviors such as stealing and lying) of which
suicidality or parasuicidal and self-injurious
behavior are prominent

28. Reality therapy
GOALS OF REALITY THERAPY:
1. It help client to become psychologically strong and rational
and make them Realize that they have choices in the ways
they treat themselves and the others.
2. It help client clarify what they want in life?”vital for person to
act resposibly
3. help clients to make realistic plans in order to achieve
personal needs and wishes.
4. Aim to eliminate punishment and excuse from the clients life.
The clients make excuse of being punished by worlds or by
counselor if not completing a plan.

29. TECHNIQUES
• Action oriented techniques.
• Help the client realize that others don’t control them and they have
a choice to respond freely towards the events and people.
• avoid/eschew 7 deadly habits.
1. Criticizing
2. Blaming
3. Complaining
4. Threatening
5. Punishing

30. • Use of effective and active techniques of
1.Teaching
2.Employing humor
3.Role playing
4.Offering feedback
5.Formulating plans
6.Making contracts

31. 5.Reality therapy helps the client to make new
plan if old one fails.
6. Focus on behavior and the present. Behavior is
related with the feelings and physiology so
positive change in behavior brings other
positive changes.
7. Counselor and client should have a
meaningful relationship that is based on
understanding, acceptance, empathy and
counselor’s faith in clients ability to change.