Evidence-Based Psychotherapy with Adolescents: A Primer for New Clinicians

Most courses in counseling, social work, therapy, and clinical psychology programs lump clinical work with "children and adolescents" together into a single unit while the social, emotional, physical, and neurobiological development of youth is often only a portion of a development course that covers the entire human lifespan. The consequence is twofold: department chairs, accrediting agencies, administrators, and faculty are tasked with covering too much content in too few course hours; and graduate students and beginning practitioners are woefully unprepared for working with difficult populations, including teenagers and young adults. Evidence-Based Psychotherapy with Adolescents helps new clinicians working in any treatment setting learn how to conduct psychotherapy with adolescents from a place of understanding and empathy. In addition to addressing adolescent development, psychological theories in practice, neurobiology of adolescents, clinical assessment, and evidence-based treatment approaches for a range of common mental health concerns, the text explains how to build therapeutic alliances with adolescent clients and work with vulnerable populations commonly seen in treatment. A complete guide that empowers readers with the insight and tools necessary to support adolescents as they progress towards adulthood, this book effectively builds the core skill sets of students and new clinicians in social work, psychology, psychiatry, and marriage and family therapy.



About the Author
Joanna Ellen Bettmann, PhD, MSW, is a Professor and the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at the University of Utah College of Social Work. Dr. Bettmann has received numerous honors, including the 2013 Dean's Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award, the 2011 Psychoanalytic Psychodynamic Research Society Award, a 2006-2007 fellowship with the American Psychoanalytic Association, and the 1993 Lawrence Marx Jr. Award of Dartmouth College. Dr. Bettman has worked as a staff, therapist, director, and researcher at wilderness therapy and residential treatment settings for troubled youth since 1994. She has also worked as a clinical social worker in several community mental health agencies, the University of Utah Counseling Center, and private practice. She is trained in disaster response and served as a social worker for the American Red Cross response to Hurricane Katrina in Utah and Mississippi.

Dr. Bettmann writes and researches on a range of topics, including adolescent attachment, wilderness therapy, residential treatment, and treatment outcomes. She has published articles in Journal of Child and Family Studies, Research on Social Work Practice, Journal of Counseling Psychology, International Journal of Emergency Mental Health, Journal of Experiential Education, Child & Youth Care Forum, Clinical Social Work Journal, Residential Treatment for Children & Youth, Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, Journal of Teaching in Social Work, Smith College Studies in Social Work, and Journal of Therapeutic Schools and Programs. She has presented her research nationally and internationally at professional conferences over the last 20 years.