Building Resilience in Teens

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Building Resilience in Teens

• How to help your teen deal with lifes challenges.

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Fulton Psychological Group

• Individual Therapy
• Group Therapy
• Parent Training
• Family Therapy
• Couples Therapy
• Psychological Testing
• Psychiatry

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Resilience Factors

• Personal Factors
• Easy temperament outgoing, flexible
• High self-esteem
• Mastery approach success due to ability and
  failure due to self (made a mistake, didnt
  prepare) or environment
• Family Environment
• Warmth, closeness and structure
• Close relationship with someone outside the
  family
• Offers support system and positive coping model
  (mentor)

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Characteristics of a Resilient Teen

• Maintains a hopeful outlook
• Able to accept circumstances that cannot change
• Develops realistic goals and works toward them
• Takes responsibility and learns from mistakes
• Keeps a long term and broader perspective
• Self confident

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Parent Strategies

• Be empathetic (we want to feel understood)
• Have reasonable expectations
• Use reasonable discipline methods
• Give more decision making as teen matures
• Be communicative (think aloud)
• Dont react negatively to negative emotions
• Give more responsibility to your teen
• Model healthy lifestyle

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Tools to Teach Your Teen

• Effective communication
• Honest appraisal of self
• Problem solving (empathize-identify
  problem-identify viable solutions-come up with
  solution)
• The model of success
• How to reach out and get help
• Conflict resolution

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Teaching Responsibility

• The good news is that its your fault
• Mistakes are a part of life
• Have responsibilities
• More decision ability
• Money management
• Create schedule, structure

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Recovery Skills

• Ability to bounce back
• Calm self physically
• Reassure self (recognize strengths)
• Reflect on what happened
• Take responsibility but avoid internalizing
• Take broader perspective (not the end of the
  world)
• Consider alternatives for future action
• Learn from mistakes

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Teaching how to Overcome Challenges

• Dont fix it for your child
• Ask before offering suggestions
• Dont get mad about mistakes
• Role model and think aloud about problem
  solving and preparation
• Ask your teen how he would handle situations
  outside himself (e.g. in a movie, a friends,
  your own)

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Relationships

• Make sure you work on having a positive
  relationship with your teen
• Empathize and active listen
• Separate relating and managing interactions with
  your teen
• Make sure your teen has good peer relationships
• Make sure your teen has good relationships with
  adults

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Self-Regulation

• Ability to monitor and control emotions
• Includes two components
• Cognitive (self-reassuring)
• Physiological (adrenalin, cortisol)
• Calm down before doing anything else
• Social referencing

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Healthy Habits

• Have fun with your teen
• Take care of body through exercise nutrition
• Keep a balance in life between work and fun
• Reduce chronic stress and tension
• Visualize hopeful outlook
• Learn and practice relaxation skills

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Threats to Resilience

• Trauma
• Divorce
• Disability
• Loss of a loved one or support system
• Chronic stress
• Too much change