Helping the Struggling Adolescent : A Guide to Thirty-six Common Problems for Counselors, Pastors and Youth Workers

by Les Parrott III

Helping the Struggling Adolescent is your first resource to turn to when a teen you know is in trouble. Whether you're a youth worker, counselor, pastor, or teacher, this fast, ready reference is a compendium of insight on teen problems from abuse to violence and everything between. Help starts here for thirty-six common, critical concerns. Topics are arranged in alphabetical order. Each chapter gives you essential information for several vital questions: What does the specific struggle look like? Why did it happen? How can you help? When should you refer to another expert? Where can you find additional resources? Arranged in three sections, this book first gives you the basics of being an effective helper, Then it informs you on the different struggles of adolescents. The final section--a key component of this book--supplies more than forty rapid assessment tools for use with specific problems. Helping the Struggling Adolescent organizes and condenses biblical counseling issues for teens into one extremely useful volume. Keep it in arm's reach for the answers you need, right when you need them.

Genres: Counselling, Parenting, Reference, Lifestyle

608 pages, Hardcover

First published January 7, 1993

About the author

#1 New York Times best-selling authors, Les and Leslie. A husband-and-wife team who not only share the same name, but the same passion for helping others build healthy relationships. In 1991, the Parrotts founded the Center for Relationship Development on the campus of Seattle Pacific University - a groundbreaking program dedicated to teaching the basics of good relationships.

Married in 1984, the Parrotts bring real-life examples to their speaking platform. Their professional training - Leslie as a marriage and family therapist, and Les as a clinical psychologist - ensures a presentation that is grounded, insightful and cutting-edge.

The Parrotts are New York Times #1 Best Selling Authors. Their books include the award-winning Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts, Love Talk, Real Relationships, The Parent You Want to Be, The Hour That Matters Most and Crazy Good Sex.

Each year Les and Leslie speak in over 40 cities. Their audiences include a wide array of venues, from churches to Fortune 500 company board rooms. Their books have sold over two million copies in more than two dozen languages.

The Parrotts have been guests on many national TV and radio programs such as CNN, Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, The View with Barbara Walters, NBC Nightly News, and Oprah. Their work has been featured in USA Today and The New York Times.

Visit their website for lots of free resources at www.LesandLeslie.com

Reviews

[Hazel Joy Lozada · Rating 5 out of 5]

Comprehensive guide of different problems in dealing with adolescents, with assessment tools 👍🏻 also provides statistics for grounded overview of the problem although statistics are for Americans because the author is from there so nothing can be done about that. For a counselor, pastors, youth ministers, this is a good guide. 👍🏻

[g clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little biases

This book presupposes a Christian value system that is rather fundamentalist in nature and does not reflect and hold in tension the nuances of other hermeneutical traditions. Furthermore, it cherry picks data to support its worldview. However I loved the rapid assessment section.

[Austin Hess · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bit dated. Helpful introduction to a wide array of topics. Would probably find something similar within this decade to be more useful

[Eric Black]

This book is intended as a quick reference for those working with adolescents. Written from a traditional/conservative perspective.

[Jacob O'connor · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was another one I had to read for school.  There is some good information here, but it did not need to be 600 pages. 

The book covers 36 different topics, but I found two pieces of advice particularly helpful. 

1.     Using logic on ourselves.  I consider myself pretty decent at reasoning.  I can spot a fallacy.  Usually I recognize a good argument from a bad.  However, I don't always apply those skills to my "inner" dialogue. I'm anxious about something, but I haven't measured my level of anxiety against the hard evidence.

2.     Learning to control our thoughts.  Several times the book prescribes meditation techniques for replacing bad thoughts with good ones.  This was an excellent reminder.  It's also biblical, 2Cor10:5, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”.  I want to get better at this. 

[Christina · Rating 4 out of 5]

incredibly comprehensive handbook that is essential for anyone working with you. my only complaint is that the book seems to assume the white male as normative (e.g in the chapter on rage, violence, and gunfire -- which seems like too much for one chapter anyway -- there is no mention of girl violence, or gang violence. most rage and violence is attributed to loner males, like the young men involved in suburban school shootings across the country.)

[Carrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good book especially for lay leaders to have as a reference guide.

[Julian · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great resource for anyone in youth ministry with some excellent questions and helpful guides. A must read for those in youth work of any sort.