I have had experiences doing groups with adolescents of different ages before, but it appears as if dealing with “youth at risk” demands special, unique talents and skills. Patience, persistence, perseverance, endurance, abundant love and confrontation, when backed with unconditional love and understanding, works wonders.

Adolescence have been defined as a period o variable onset and duration that marks the end of a childhood and lays the foundation for maturity. developments occurs at three interrelated levels – biological,psychological and social. Biologically, onset is signaled by the final acceleration of skeletal growth and the beginning of sexual development. Psychologically, onset is characterized by an acceleration of cognitive growth and personality formulation. Socially it is a period of intensified preparation for the forthcoming role of young adulthood. Girls enter puberty earlier than boys.

Others refer to adolescence as the period of transition from childhood to adulthood, which tends to produce conflict and vacillation between dependence and independence. Sexual identity and development coupled with strength to develop a sense of individual identity is the order of the day. Answers to questions like “Who am I?” and “Where am I going” pervade in the minds of adolescents. Adolescents’ self-esteem stems from their parents’ view of them. These youths’ values, morals and norms are largely those of their parents. Adolescents enter a role confusion phase when their parents’ views, morals and values differ from those of their peers and other important figures they identify with.

Generation gap, caused by the rapid change in societal values, also creates some problems for adolescents. Rapid scientific and technological advances make parental knowledge appear obsolete when compared with what the society expects their children to know. Alcohol, drugs, street gangs, and the availability of television, videos, movies and birth control pills all water the ground for sexual permissiveness, and create problems for adolescents as compared to what their parents had to face when they were growing up.

Background of adolescents’ problems
Most of us helpers seem to forget that the period of adolescence is a time of stress. To put this into proper perspective, remember the time we were adolescents. Adolescents feel more comfortable with helpers who were able to work through their own adolescents years, with all the tremors and shakes, and come out more mature. Families that report the highest incidence of parent-child conflicts appear to be those where one or both parents are not adequately resolved in their own adolescent issues. The more unresolved and conflicted one or both parents are in terms of sensitivity to separation, loss and abandonment, and the more conflicted each is with sexuality, the greater the conflict will be between parent and adolescent. This is an important point for therapists who work with adolescents, especially the ones at risk. We should have worked through all the unfinished business of our teenage years to be able to successfully work with our eveolving adults. Working with these youths demands that we know where they are coming from developmentally, physically, psychologically, socially and politically, and that we help them see how they got where they are and how they can move forward to maturity.

For example, in terms of developmental issues related to youths’ biological struggles, the young 16-year-old man is getting bigger and muscular physically, but he is still getting out of being mommy’s small boy of yesterday. What roles should we play? What role is the society calling him to play? As one adolescent jokingly reiterated during an intake interview, “Mary, its like being two different personalities.” Working with teens demands that we not only know where they are coming from, but we also need to know how they got to where they are. This last point is even much more important when working with “youths at risk.”

Asking them about how they feel and not making light of their feelings helps. Respecting them makes them feel worthwhile, content, happy, cooperative and willing to take risks with their therapist. Keeping their secrets also makes you a confidant, and a trusting and rare adult friend. Trusting them when they do no deserve our trust, being there for them when they need us, respecting them even when they do no behave respectably, and understanding where they are coming from, all act as the keys to unlocking the confusion that makes live difficult for all adolescents, especially the ones at risk. The above skills also help assist them to put problems in the right perspective.

Youths respect those who do not judge them. Allow them to see through their mistakes rather than pointing them out the first time they mention them. Go along with their viewpoints, however dumb you think it is, until they can sift through their mistakes as you work with them. Tell them nothing is stupid, because we all learn from our mistakes. You can confront adolescents better after they have developed sound trust in you. That comes only when you have given them respect, unconditional love, understanding, etc., in therapy for about four or five sessions. Unless it”s absolutely necessary I do not confront my adolescent clients until the fourth or fifth session unless the problems involve drugs and alcohol, or suicidal/homicidal problems.

Love is a verb with adolescents at risk, especially since most of them have never stayed in one home where love is constantly elicited from months or years at a time. Be honest with them. Show them some, not all, of you human frailties, when appropriate, with caution and wisdom. Hook them up with positive role models in the community, and where this is impossible, let them read a story of a positive role model in the school or public library. Refer them for appropriate mediation and advocates when they are in trouble with the law. After a release of information has been signed, counselors should work closely with the adolescents’ teachers, principal, parents, foster parents, guardians, school counselors and social workers. Networking with those that matter to these youths fosters confidence in the professional.

Lastly, let us take our rightful place as helpers to our adolescents at risk, because they will grow out of the the teenage adventure of getting into trouble and winding through the court system, into mature adults with sound mental health – if we enduringly do our jobs as helpers. We should learn not to label these youths at risk as oppositional defiants or as adolescent rebels, but as young people with adjustment disorder of adolescence.