Next Tuesday I will be presenting at the Jack Hirose conference on youth and addictions. I will be offering three sessions, as follows:

Using Creative and Expressive Interventions with Adolescents
The traditional modes of counselling and therapy (sitting in chairs, talking) do not always work well for adolescents, who require more active styles of engagement such as physical activities, games for teaching and mentoring, sports, and creative practices. This is especially true for substance users, who are caught in patterns of the nervous system that cannot be addressed by talking and insight alone. This session offers participants a smorgasbord of practices and approaches that involve creativity, play, and physical expression. The emphasis is on practical tools that can be immediately applied.

Creative Mentoring for Adolescents
Healthy development in adolescence hinges upon the availability of dependable adult mentors. In today’s world, such mentors are difficult to find, and often this role falls to the social service provider. Such a role can be profoundly transformative for adolescents. Yet mentoring requires immense sensitivity and interpersonal skill. This session offers participants a set of basic mentoring skills that can be applied in the context of creative interaction (sports, the arts, teams, community involvement, etc.). The emphasis of the session is on practical tools that arise from a philosophical orientation to the important work of youth mentoring.

Designing Creative Activities for Users of Specific Substnaces
Creative and physically expressive activities can be designed to address the healing needs of adolescents who use specific substances. This session offers participants tools for designing and facilitating creative activities tailored to users of four classes of substances: hallucinogens, opiates, stimulants, and alcohol. The emphasis is on practical strategies that can be immediately applied.

I have put together a combined resource package for these sessions (attached as pdf to this post, and available by clicking on “attachment” at the top of this post). As usual, feel free to download, copy, and share.