Adolsescent Psychology: The Parent Version

Date: Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Time: 7 to 9 p.m.
Location: Holten Richmond Middle School: Multi-Purpose Room

"Adolescent Psychology - The Parent Version" is a workshop for parents, grandparents and those working with youth in their pre and early teens. The program covers the topics of physical, cognitive, and social/emotional changes that occur in adolescence and how they affect relationships with parent and friends as well as school life. Among the focus points will be:

• Identifying your teen's "lightening rod, imaginary audience, and personal fables."
• Learning how to teen-proof your home.
• Learning how to teen-proof your relationship.
• Learning how to set appropriate limits so your teen will want to follow them.
• Developing effective tools for identifying and dealing with your teen's experimentation with sex, drugs, and alcohol.
• Separating high expectations from unrealistic expectations and their respective consequences for your teen's emotional well-being.

Speaker Joani Geltman has been working as a therapist, parenting consultant, and coach for more than 30 years, and has given her seminar all over Massachusetts. As a member of the adjunct faculty of Curry College, and Lesley University, she designs curriculum and teaches Child and Adolescent development.

"I would like to help my audience understand that there is a context in which troublesome behavior occurs," she said. "It's not about bad kids or kids who are mean to their parents. It's about developmental changes that are out of control because teen's brains and bodies, their ability to understand, to conceptualize, to analyze, and to be introspective, are all brand new." Joani's special brand of "infotainment" using humor, storytelling, and sending home parents with a "goody bag" of helpful techniques make this a must-come evening.

This program is the second of four this spring offered by DanversCAREs prevention coalition as part of its Parent Enrichment Series.