Assignment 2: Course Project Task IV

Working with adolescents

TONY WILLIAMS

ARGOSY U

DR. Debra Pearce

22 July 2018

Adolescents are the most delicate members of the community and therefore people should know who to deal with them so that all of them can live better lives. The phase of growth is characterized with numerous challenges that affects them and this calls for the need to help them overcome them and hence live peaceful lives (Neumark-Sztainer et al., 2016).

In the interview I conducted with Dr. Michelle Bolyn, she disclosed to me that the age group in which she serves is teenagers between the ages of 10 and 19. She also elaborated to me the main reason that made her enter the field of guide and counselling. According to her, counseling has always been a calling to her and she always wanted to become a counsellor when she was growing. She always wanted to become a problem solver that she could motivate and talk to those that are troubled and hence helping them overcome the problems that are affecting them. The main reason why she picked this particular age group, that is, ages between 10 and 19, is because she knew that adolescents in that age group usually undergo numerous challenges in their daily lives and she wanted to dedicate her live in making sure that she helped them undergo through them without hurting themselves. Some of the challenges that she outlines are peer pressure, pressure to fit into the society among many others. Moreover, some challenges can also be during their dilemma on their independence as well as them leaning on the parental guidance.

Asking her about what she has learnt about this particular group that she did not learn in school, she said she has learnt a lot in the course of her career and she believes that she will continue learning as far as she is working in the field. For instance, one of the things she learnt while working with the teenagers is that they are a very delicate lot and therefore proper care and tactfulness should be employed when dealing with them. This usually comes in when the individuals are trying to fit into the society where they are swayed by things such as peer pressure as well as other factors. The kids in this stage need proper counselling and to enable embrace their living standards and hence enabling them to live peaceful lives without having to copy the way of living of others. Another important thing that she learnt is that for one to become a successful counsellor, they need to be persistent about their teaching on the kids (Head, 2017). While doing so, one also needs to create a good rapport with them as this will make them willing to learn and therefore enabling them to change to respectable persons for their own good.

I also asked her about some of the disturbing trends that she might have experienced while working with the teens. According to her, there are many disturbing trends that she encounters while working with the adolescents. For instance, one of the most disturbing trends is that most of the teens tend to be very forgetful and therefore when they are they are given counseling on a given matter, they tend to forget it only after a few days after the exercise. This is therefore a trend that has been giving her hard times and she is always finding ways to see that the trend is done away with for the better of her counselling career.

Dr. Michelle gave a number of exciting trends that she has experienced with this particular age group. One of these trends is that this age group has the ability to learn new concepts and skills faster. She illustrated this trend using academic institutions. She said that member of this group tends to understand academic stuff with ease. However, this is dependent on some factors. Their fast rate of growth makes them sensitive and it therefore important that they are handled appropriately. Another exciting trend about their age group is that they tend to get attached quickly especially to people who care about them. Member of this age group are quite social and tend to interact with many people of their age group and eve other age groups. They end up making many friends as them socialize with other people (Ovsyanik et al., 2016).

During the interview, I asked Dr. Michelle whether her formal training helped in preparing to work with this group. She said that she has been trained tow work with all age groups. In her training, she attended several workshops where she worked with various groups of people. This gave her a diversified set of skills for her counselling profession. A notable point by Dr. Michelle is that, during field studies, she developed a special interest of working with young people especially teenagers. This made her shift her skill development into counselling members of this age group. Despite the fact that her training was diversified, she still believes that she should have been taught more skills of handling teenagers.

Dr. Bolyn believes that her training to handle all age groups was not effective. She says she should have been taught counselling skills on handling teenagers only. This would have been fruitful because she only deals with teenagers. Moreover, members of this particular age group are quite dynamic and therefore, effective training should be provided. It is also important to note that, handling this group requires more skills which implies that these skills can still be used on other age groups.

Despite the fact that Dr. Michelle loves working with this age groups, she stated frustrations that she experiences from time to time. One of the top frustrations is disrespect from some members. Most members of this age groups are adolescents who tend to be arrogant and disrespectful. Another frustration is inconsistency in development. A teen may depict good character today but after sometime, he or she becomes arrogant. Moreover, she said that she is often frustrated when dealing with complex personalities. Some teenagers are quite complicated which affects services delivery. Also, it is difficult to identify the specific problems that these children suffer from.

She said her career is quite rewarding thanks to working with this age group. One of the rewarding aspects is providing encouragement to children. Some teens are heartbroken due to past events and providing encouragement to these people is quite rewarding. Another rewarding aspect of this job is solving problems. Counselling members of their age groups entails many challenges. An example of these challenges is family conflict. Michelle said that finding solutions to these problems is reading. Furthermore, the fact that she molds people into becoming future leaders is a rewarding aspect of the job. Working with this age group involves motivating young people into becoming role models in the society (Sharf, 2016).

References

Neumark-Sztainer, D., Dlanne, M., & Harris, T. (2016). Believes abd attitudes about teens among teachers and the community. Working with adolescents. Journal of teen’s education. 31.2, 31(2), 3-9

Head, J. (2017). Working with adolescents. Co nstructing identity. Routledge.

Sharf, R. S. (2016). Applying career development theory to counseling. Nelson Education.

Ovsyanik, O. A., Belinskaya, D. B., Kochetkov, I. G., & Deberdeeva, N. A. (2016). Specific Features of Value Orientations and Social Mindsets of Deviant Teenagers. International Journal of Environmental and Science Education, 11(18), 12327-12336.