A Workshop with Professor Stephen Briggs - Working With Adolescents In Contemporary Contexts

The workshop will draw on psychoanalytic thinking about the adolescent developmental process and the emotionality in therapeutic relationships to underpin thinking and practice, and to develop effective approaches. These take into account the wide range of problems encountered across the age range (from puberty into the third decade), across genders, cultures, class. The focus will be on developing a therapeutic setting, including working with structures of time and focus to create opportunities for developmental change and growth and the reduction of risks, symptoms and vulnerability to mental health disturbance. The workshop will therefore focus on four key themes:

• relating to contemporary adolescence
• working therapeutically within the adolescent developmental process
• developing a ‘therapeutic stance’ for effective work with young people
• working with risks

The day will be interactive throughout, and will draw on and relate to participants’ current experiences of working with young people