Working with Teens
Mark enjoys counseling teens. Teens experience depression, anxiety, addictions, anger management issues, rebellion, sexual issues and eating disorders.
Teenagers have the task of preparing to be independent from their parents so that they can get ready to move out and make all their own adult decisions. Teens experiment with decision-making in ways that sometimes frighten parents: tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, other drugs, sexual experimentation and curfew violations are choices that can be dangerous. Learning to deal constructively with teens who are rebelling is a difficult skill to learn. Mark and his wife have raised two children, now no longer teens, and raised several foster-children. Two recommended books are: Get Out of My Life, But First Could You Drive Me and Cheryl to the Mall by Anthony Wolf, and Parent/Teen Break-Through: The Relationship Approach by Mira Kishenbaum and Charles Foster.
Mark enjoys shedding positive light on the lives of teens in transition.
Many teens experience school anxiety or depression, worrying about their grades and the social structure. My teacher friends tell me that with the monetary, regulatory and social constrictions of our current educational system, about 30% of students are well served, and the rest muddle through or fall through the cracks. Until recently, about 25% of boys dropped out of high school in Vermont (up to 50% of blue collar boys). It is not necessary for every student to meet minimum educational standards in order to go on to be a functional member of the work force. Finding positive educational and career opportunities for students who fall through the cracks is often difficult, but of vital importance for teens to maintain hope in their lives. Mark believes our society needs all of the personality types, learning styles and giftings exhibited. Each individual is uniquely gifted, and finding those gifts is important to pointing teens in a rewarding and fulfilling direction.
Sometimes the fastest recovery for teens is with family counseling.
