Group Therapy with Troubled Youth

Book excerpt: A valuable reference guide, "Group Therapy with Troubled Youth" offers practical strategies for treating adolescents in a variety of group settings. As a unique feature of this book, author Sheldon Rose incorporates cognitive, behavioral, and social resources along with small-group theory into one model. He presents a general overview of group work and related issues and then leads the reader directly into assessment, intervention, and treatment. The book closes with specific applications, as well as chapters on training and research issues. Throughout the book, the author addresses such questions as how to deal with disruptive youth in a group session, how to use the group itself to develop home tasks that are completed, how to increase the attraction of the group, how to formulate goals so they can be achieved, how to employ a range of procedures in the group to achieve these goals, how to involve youth in their own therapy, how to assist youth in helping others in the group, and how to coordinate family therapy and group therapy. "Group Therapy with Troubled Youth" includes case studies, as well as short exercises with applications to practice. It covers current key topics such as anger management, negotiation, using the social support network, integrating group and family therapy, and training for therapy. As such, it will be extremely useful to professionals practicing in the fields of social work, group work, counseling and clinical psychology, and multicultural counseling.