Working with adolescents poses challenges that differ in important ways from those encountered with adults. Adolescents are often resistant to therapy and struggle to articulate their internal experience. Parents, in turn, are often anxious or uncertain and may exert conscious or unconscious pressure on the therapist. This three-part seminar examines the technical and developmental complexities of working with adolescents and their parents in psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Drawing on Relational and Winnicottian Theory and contemporary Self Psychology, the course emphasizes understanding adolescent symptoms and resistance as developmentally organized forms of communication rather than oppositional behavior.

Participants will explore how to establish a therapeutic framework with adolescents while maintaining optimal parental involvement. Common treatment impasses—such as adolescent silence, refusal to engage, falling asleep, and insisting that “everything is fine”—will be examined through multiple clinical examples.

Learning Objectives

1. Identify at least three ways adolescent symptoms and resistance function as developmentally organized forms of communication.
2. Formulate two specific psychoanalytic interventions for common adolescent treatment impasses (e.g., silence, refusal to engage, falling asleep) that promote therapeutic engagement.
3. Describe two strategies for sustaining constructive parental involvement.

Cancellation Policy

If you need to cancel your purchase, please do so before April 17, 2026 by emailing admin@nwaps.org to request a refund minus a 30% cancellation fee. We are unable to process or offer any refund for cancellations made after April 17, 2026. Allow 2-4 weeks to process your refund request. Note that participation in the entire event is required to obtain CE credits.