Ron Taffel (ed): Breaking Through To Teens: A New Psychotherapy for the New Adolescent
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Ron Taffel (ed): Breaking Through To Teens: A New Psychotherapy for the New Adolescent The Guilford Press, New York, 2005, 292 pp (hardcover) Christiana Bratiotis
Published online: 1 October 2008 Ó Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2008
This skillfully crafted text by Ron Taffel, PhD, offers a new method of therapeutic engagement with adolescents of the 21st century. In Breaking Through to Teens, Taffel uses his 25 years of expansive clinical experience, along with his personal experience, to develop an approach for working with the group he affectionately calls ‘‘the new adolescent’’. Taffel’s relational-behavioral approach to therapy focuses on the relational connection between the therapist and the adolescent and uses that relationship to create ‘‘true behavioral change in teens’’ (pp. 27). In the introduction, Taffel conveys the pleasure he gained from writing this book and asserts that it is meant to be an accessible book rather than a heavy text. This is a goal he certainly achieves. He also shares his intention for this book—‘‘I hope this book saves lives. I hope it will be a contribution that empowers therapeutic efforts, work that is humbling to anyone willing to give it a try’’ (pp. 2). According to Taffel, the necessity for a new therapy for the new and more complex adolescent of today is required to provide the kind of adult relational connection that is often missing in the lives of adolescents and which serves as the foundation for behavioral change tools to be developed and enhanced later in young adulthood. While Taffel’s assertion that adolescents of today are often lacking in meaningful adult relationships is seemingly accurate, his characterization suggests one specific type of new adolescent. Unfortunately, the adolescent typology Taffel seems to be describing is less heterogeneous than the pluralism of races, creeds, ethnicities and socio-economic statuses that is the American adolescent landscape. Despite this narrow definition of the new adolescent, Breaking Through To Teens is a book that has value as both a comprehensive first read and as a text used for frequent, repeated reference in work with young adults. Structured in a way that provides the background, rationale and implementation of relational-behavioral therapy, this
C. Bratiotis (&) School of Social Work, Boston University, 264 Bay State Road, Boston, MA 02155, USA e-mail: [email protected]
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book also includes invaluable real-life examples that reinforce lessons learned and illustrate the strategies employed. Taffel describes the relational-behavioral model and its emergence from his realizations about the life of the 21st century teen. The ‘‘new’’ adolescent culture, according to Taffel, is one that includes walls of silence between adolescents and adults, the adherence to a celebrity culture mentality as well as ever more rapidly changing fads. Taffel asserts that the therapeutic relationship with adolescents is indeed a critical component to treatment, but that it alone does not create change. A strongly
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