Power and Compassion: Working With Difficult Adolescents and Abused Parents

When teenagers get out of control, understanding and negotiation often only make things worse. In this solid, no-nonsense guide to working with difficult adolescents and their families, Jerome A. Price makes a passionate case for rescuing parents from invalidation by a society that often views parents as the main cause of their children’s problems. He shows how demoralized parents can be undermined by well-meaning professionals and other adults anxious to appear understanding, whose alliances with out-of-control adolescents create an invidious triangle. Recognizing that sometimes parents are victims, not victimizers, the author provides effective strategies to help families break free of self-defeating cycles of control and rebellion. The book delineates the levels and types of abusive behavior in adolescents, and outlines how parents can regain control by learning to be both more understanding and more decisive.

Jerome A. Price, M.A., is the director and founder of the Michigan Family Institute. A Regional Faculty Member for the Family Therapy Institute of Washington, D.C., he is a well-known supervisor and strategic therapist consulting for mental health centers, hospital medical and psychiatric staffs, and outpatient programs. His articles on many aspects of family treatment have been published in the Journal of Systemic Therapies, the Utne Reader, and the Family Therapy Networker, and he is a contributing author to the books Alternative Services in Community Mental Health and The Evolving Therapist. Price is an Approved Supervisor for the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy.