Strengths-Based Counseling With At-Risk Youth

by Michael Ungar

Overview

This resource offers counseling strategies to promote adolescents' overlooked strengths and create healthy alternatives to problem behaviors such as bullying, drug use, violence, and promiscuity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781412928205
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	03/06/2006
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	144
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Michael Ungar received a Ph.D. in Social Work from Wilfred Laurier University in 1995. He is currently an Associate Professor in the Maritime School of Social Work at Dalhousie University, Canada. He has published articles in such journals as Adolescence, Youth & Society, Qualitative Social Work, Social Service Review, the Journal of Systemic Therapies, and Child & Youth Care Forum. Dr. Ungar has been researching, writing, and teaching about resilience among youth for ten years in Canada, the U.S., Hong Kong, and Columbia. He oversees a federally funded international research project involving collaboration among researchers in eleven sites on five continents exploring similarities and differences in how resilience is understood, studied, and nurtured. As part of this, he will soon embark on a tour of Israel, England, Russia, and Tanzania. He recently presented two papers detailing his work at an international qualitative methods conference hosted by Sage and the International Institute for Qualitative Methods. He has a well-established international network of colleagues in this field across many disciplines, and many will be contributors to this volume.

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Chapter 1. Surviving and Thriving
The Many Ways Youth Survive
Three Survival Strategies, Three Identities
Power and Self-Definition
Substitution as Intervention
Narrative Interventions
Powerful Alternatives
Chapter 2. Three Identities: Pandas, Chameleons, and Leopards
The Stuck Panda
The Uncertain Chameleon
The Demanding Leopard
Pegs and Holes
Chapter 3. Six Strategies for Nurturing Resilience
Overview of the Six Strategies
Paths to Resilience: Conventional and Unconventional
Strategy 1: Hear Their Truth
Chapter 4. From Truth to Action: Implementing Strategies Two Through Five
Strategy 2: Help Youth Look Critically at Their Behavior
Strategy 3: Create Opportunities That Fit With What Youth Say They Need
Strategy 4: Speak In Ways Youth Will Hear and Respect
Strategy 5: Find the Difference That Counts the Most
Chapter 5. The Many Expressions of Youth Resilience
Strategy 6: Substitute Rather Than Suppress
Substitutions for Drug Use
Substitutions for Other At-Risk Behaviors
The Many Expressions of Resilience
Chapter 6. A New Way to Look at Bullying
Bullying as Coping: Jake
Bullying and the Three Identities
Providing Opportunities for Adaptation
Substitutions for Bullies
Substitutions for Victims
Chapter 7. Assessing Resilience
The Resilient Youth Strengths Inventory
Evaluating Fairly
Chapter 8. Translating the Results of the Resilient Youth Strengths Inventory
Pandas Shoot
Chameleons Score
Leopards Win
Using Results to Inform Our Efforts
Conclusion: The Need for Change
References
Index

Editorial Reviews

“Offers concrete examples regarding questioning and building rapport that are very helpful to professionals and parents faced with (re)connecting and helping youth.”

William P. Evans

"A commonsense approach to working with teens. If you are new to the topic of resiliency, this is a good place to start."

October 2006 Psyc CRITIQUES

"An eye-opening and heart-opening book."--Bonnie Benard, Senior Program Associate

"A commonsense approach to working with teens. If you are new to the topic of resiliency, this is a good place to start."--PsycCRITIQUES, October 2006 (10/18/2006 12:00:00 AM)

"Offers concrete examples regarding questioning and building rapport that are very helpful to professionals and parents faced with (re)connecting and helping youth."

--William P. Evans, Professor and State Specialist for Youth Development (5/10/2006 12:00:00 AM)

From the Publisher

An eye-opening and heart-opening book. "

Bonnie Benard

"A commonsense approach to working with teens. If you are new to the topic of resiliency, this is a good place to start."

October 2006 PsycCRITIQUES

"A commonsense approach to working with teens. If you are new to the topic of resiliency, this is a good place to start. "

Psyc CRITIQUES: Contemporary Psychology