Counseling Youth

Abstract

Counseling Youth: Systemic Issues and Interventions highlights the nature of counseling youth and implementing interventions from a systemic perspective. Included in this text is a brief overview of child-adolescent development and then a focus on issues, policies, and services for counseling youth in schools, communities, and clinical settings. Central to this book are the issues that families, schools, and communities are having difficulty addressing such as trauma, abuse, suicide, teen pregnancy, and antisocial behavior, and the key to addressing these issues is to utilize a variety of resources within the system and advocate for systemic change. The authors utilize a multidimensional focus on development, issues, and strategies, providing an integrative approach so that clinicians (present and future) have an understanding of the theory, concerns, policies, and approaches for working with youth. The authors also utilize a transtheoretical approach, attempting to provide an overview of approaches and interventions regardless of theoretical underpinnings. Unlike books that focus on a singular model, the authors’ approach is to speak to a variety of individuals training to be clinicians from a variety of backgrounds (e.g., social work, marriage and family therapy, counseling, psychology). The systemic perspective focuses on the multitude of issues and systems that impact youth development and mental health, such as academic progress and achievement, emotional and behavioral problems, and overall behaviors that impact physiological and emotional well-being. As the authors address these issues, they highlight the roles of various systems, including schools, mental health facilities, medical facilities, juvenile justice systems, and refugee services, as well as services geared to special populations such as LGBT+ youth and undocumented immigrant minors.