A trusted course text and professional resource, this comprehensive book delves into all aspects of planning and conducting strengths-based group work with adolescents. In an accessible, down-to-earth style, Andrew Malekoff spells out the principles of effective group practice. Extensive clinical illustrations show how successful group leaders engage teens in addressing tough issues–including violence, sexuality, prejudice, social isolation, and substance abuse–in a wide range of settings. Normative issues that adolescents face in the multiple contexts of their lives are lucidly explained. Packed with creative ideas and activities, the book helps readers develop their skills as confident, reflective practitioners.

New to This Edition

• Significantly revised chapters on group work essentials, school-based practice, and trauma.
• Additional topics: social media and cyberbullying, expressive and animal-assisted therapies, mindfulness, adolescent brain development, and more.
• Updated practice principles, information, and references.
• Numerous new practice illustrations.

Contents:

• I. The Adolescent in Context
• 1. Adolescent Development, Risk, and Opportunity
• 2. Essentials for Group Work with Adolescents: Staying in the Mess
• II. Guidelines for Group Building
• 3. Strengths-Based Group Work with Adolescents
• 4. Planning in Group Work: Where We Begin
• 5. Good Beginnings in Group Work: Socializing Adolescents into the Group Culture
• 6. What’s Going On in There?: Forming Alliances with Parents Whose Adolescent Children Join Groups
• 7. School-Based Group Work with Adolescents: A View from the Inside Out
• 8. Problem Solving in Group Work
• 9. The Purposeful Use of Activities in Group Work: Innovative, Expressive, and Mindful Approaches
• 10. The Ending Transition in Group Work
• III. Contemporary and Age-Old Themes in Group Work: Guidelines, Applications, and Practice Illustrations
• 11. Addressing Racial and Ethnic Diversity through Group Work
• 12. Violence and Youth: Dimensions and Interventions in Group Work
• 13. Group Work in the Aftermath of Traumatic Event
• 14. Adolescent Sexuality and Group Work
• 15. Group Work as a Counterforce to Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse
• IV. Special Challenges for Group Workers
• 16. The Struggle to Fit In
• 17. On Becoming a Reflective Group Worker

Author Bio:

Andrew Malekoff, MSW, LCSW, CASAC, is executive director and CEO of the north shore child and family guidance Center in Roslyn Heights, New York, where he has worked since 1977. Mr. Malekoff is editor in chief of social work with groups: a journal of community and clinical practice, has taught as an Adjunct Professor at the Adelphi and New York university schools of social work, and serves as a board member for the international association for social work with groups. He was named social work community practitioner of the year by the New York state social work education association. Widely published, Mr. Malekoff has presented his work and facilitated workshops across the United States and Canada.