Phase 1: Building a Relationship – “This is the key to a successful session”

Level 1: Authoritarian – warning, directing, commanding

Level 2: Advice Giver – tend to communicate in generalizations/stereotypes

Level 3: Facilitator – at the same level with the teen, teens want respect and understanding

- Build the relationship in his/her comfort zone

- Be interested in what they’re interested in

- Find out what they like about life

- Be an active listener

3 Crucial Factors That Help Build a Relationship Effectively

1. Accurate Empathy – feeling with someone
2. Non-Possessive Warmth – your interested in them and not what you can get out of it
3. Genuine – being a real person

Phase 2: Helping Skills

1. Concreteness
2. Confrontation
3. Immediacy
4. Reassurance

Concreteness – Ability to put into exact words what a teenager is saying to you, develop a set of adjectives

Confrontation – Don’t confront before building a relationship. 4 Areas to Confront:

1. What they say vs what they do
2. Perceptions of reality
3. Goals and ambitions that are inconsistent
4. Contradicting statements

Avoid putting them down and rather concentrate on the behavior.

Immediacy – The ability to tune into the problem of the moment

Reassurance – When you reassure someone it really empowers them