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Treating Adolescents: The Addition to Intoxication

Jon Daily, LCSW

This course provides an introduction to the special issues involved in treating adolescents with substance use disorders (“SUD”), based on the Recovery Happens Counseling Services approach developed by Jon Daily, LCSW. Jon’s 20+ years of clinical treatment experience has led to a highly effective approach to clinical SUD treatment of adolescents.

Shot at a live training event, this presentation covers effective approaches to working with adolescent clients, strategies and tips for working with hard-to-reach clients, the importance of integrating family work with individual work, and understanding the differences in progression of the addictive disorder in adolescent clients vs adults, requiring different strategies.

Jon also addresses the challenges of working with families who may be in denial, or may not recognize the seriousness of their child’s use.  Filled with recent research findings, and based on work in individual treatment as well as working with schools and institutions, Jon’s insights will help improve your effectiveness in working with adolescent clients.

Course Objectives

• Upon completion of this course, the counselor will be able to:
• Identify key differences between treatment of SUD in adolescents vs. adults
• Explain the role of attachment in both cause and treatment of adolescent SUDs
• Identify the key factor in affect regulation
• Utilize alternative strategies to cultivate strong therapeutic attachment
• Describe the difference between addiction to a drug vs. addiction to intoxication

Topics Include:

• The role of attachment
• The addiction to intoxication rather than a specific drug
• The neurobiological basis of addiction
• small-t and big-T trauma
• The importance of family engagement
• The “some drugs worse than others” bias problem
• Factors increasing risk of SUD in teens
• Attunement and its clinical importance
• The crucial role of family
• Practical strategies for working with adolescents
• Family engagement strategies
• The importance of drug testing as a preventative and as an “anti-peer-pressure” tool