Act for Adolescents: Treating Teens and Adolescents in Individual and Group Therapy

In this much-needed guide, a clinical psychologist and a social worker provide a flexible, ten-week protocol based in acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) to help adolescents overcome mental health hurdles and thrive.

If you're a clinician working with adolescents, you understand the challenges this population faces. But sometimes it can be difficult to establish connection in therapy. To help, ACT for Adolescents offers the first effective professional protocol for facilitating ACT with adolescents in individual therapy, along with modifications for a group setting.

In this book, you'll find invaluable strategies for connecting meaningfully with your client in session, while at the same time arriving quickly and safely to the clinical issues your client is facing. You'll also find an overview of the core processes of ACT so you can introduce mindfulness into each session and help your client choose values-based action. Using the protocol outlined in this book, you'll be able to help your client overcome a number of mental health challenges from depression and anxiety to eating disorders and trauma.

If you work with adolescent clients, the powerful and effective step-by-step exercises in this book are tailored especially for you. This is a must-have addition to your professional library.

This book includes audio downloads.

Sheri L. Turrell, PhD, is a clinical psychologist living with her family in Toronto, ON, Canada. She is passionate about her clinical work with adolescents, helping them move toward a life that matters. Turrell is primary investigator, working in collaboration with Mary Bell, for studies of group-based acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), and is developing a mobile ACT app for adolescents. She runs a full-time private practice, and enjoys being a consultant and trainer for graduate students and mental health professionals who are interested in learning ACT. Turrell teaches ACT at the university level, where she also facilitates therapy groups.

Mary Bell, MSW, RSW, is a social worker in Toronto, ON, Canada. Currently affiliated with The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Bell has had a private practice in Toronto and Singapore. Collaborating with Sheri Turrell, she continues to evolve an acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) approach to working with adolescents and their families, and is developing an ACT app for adolescents. She loves to share ACT with clients and other practitioners.

Foreword writer Kelly G. Wilson, PhD, is professor of psychology at the University of Mississippi. He is a central figure in acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), and coauthor of the landmark Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Wilson is among the most sought-after ACT trainers. His popular experiential workshops touch thousands of clinicians and students each year. Find out more at www.onelifellc.com.