Adolescent Treatment Trainings
Adolescent Treatment Series
The nature of adolescent development poses unique issues for counselors and treatment programs when providing services to this client population. Some of these issues are:
- Adolescent brain chemistry and its impact on emotion and behavior
- Is it substance abuse or a mental illness or both?
- Treatment approaches that work for adults but do not work for adolescents
- Physical, intellectual, social and emotional development all occurring at different ages for different adolescents: is there such a thing as a “normal” adolescent?
- Ethical and legal issues of working with clients under 18 years of age
- Family as problem or solution?
- Impact of substance use and dependence on all of the above issues
This training series is provided to help clinical staff in public and private settings address some of these issues and increase their effectiveness in helping adolescents and families.
Session I: Adolescents and Substance Abuse: What Approaches Work and Why?
Dwight McCall, Ph.D., LPC and Charlotte Chapman, M.A., LPC
This 6-hour introductory training is for counselors, case managers, and supervisors to obtain an overview of adolescent development including brain chemistry, substance abuse patterns and some of the evidence-based practices that are effective in counseling adolescent clients. Didactic materials, video presentations and group discussions will help participants with the following learning objectives:
- Identify the unique characteristics of the adolescent client that relate to brain chemistry and developmental issues.
- Identify substance use and abuse patterns that are unique to adolescents.
- Increase knowledge of ways to modify treatment approaches and programming to accommodate these unique characteristics and substance use patterns including the use of evidence-based practices and ethical/legal concerns.
- Increase knowledge of family systems theory.
Session II: Helping Adolescents Change: Clinical Skills
This 12-hour training is for clinical staff to begin developing skills to engage adolescent clients and/or their families and to increase treatment effectiveness. We adapt the training to meet the needs of your client populations. Participants need to attend Session 1 or an equivalent to have an understanding of adolescent developmental needs and how they differ from adult needs. Staff can choose to either take the family therapy track or the MET/CBT track which is individual and group treatment.
The family therapy track is delivered by Dr. McCall. Learning objectives for the family track are:
- Increase skills in joining with family members (which includes engagement for treatment)
- Develop methods of assessing families which inform treatment interventions
- Learn specific interventions to facilitate change in families.
Charlotte Chapman delivers the MET/CBT track with the following learning objectives:
- Increase knowledge and skills in the application of motivational interviewing with adolescent clients.
- Learn and practice the sessions for delivery of MET/CBT treatment protocol.
- Identify implementation issues and an ongoing plan for sustainability.
Follow-up Consultation/Training
The literature on implementation of evidence-based practices indicates that “drift” is one of the barriers to implementation. Drift refers to moving further away from the skills learned in the new method and returning to previous and more familiar ways of practicing over time. In order to prevent drift, it is recommended that ongoing consultation, consistent supervision and booster trainings be provided.
See section on Clinical Supervision for training options for supervisory staff.
Consultation can consist of developing methods within the agency to prevent drift so that an outside trainer/consultant is not always needed.
The objectives and design of consultations or booster trainings are based on the need of the participants. For example, the agency may want the consultant to review program design or observe treatment delivery to make recommendations about implementation.
Logistics
Fees include planning time, master handout, and travel time. Training equipment, travel expenses and lodging are not included.
| Session I - Two trainers deliver this training |
$1000.00 |
| Session II - One trainer delivers this training. Each 6-our session
|
$850.00 |
Two day training:
$1500 |
Once we agree on dates and sessions to be delivered, we will send you a contract that describes all of the logistics. Fees are negotiable if you want us to deliver several sessions.
Please email Charlotte at charlotte@chapmantraining.com to discuss further.
References:
Malcolm King, Child and Adolescent Program Specialist
Virginia Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services
804-371-4604
Laurie Rokutani
Training Coordinator
Virginia Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services
laurie.rokutani@gmail.com
804-828-8323
Dwight McCall, Ph.D., L.P.C.
Dwight is the Director of Child and Adolescent Services for Region Ten CSB in Charlottesville, Virginia. He has over 30 years experience in the substance abuse and family therapy fields as clinician, clinical supervisor, professor, CSB substance abuse program director, and research and evaluation manager for DMHMRSAS. He has worked in CSBs, private practice, and teaching hospitals. He has been trained in Milan systemic, structural, and strategic family therapy models. He has taught family therapy in schools of social work, rehabilitation counseling, and psychiatry. Vitae
