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Talking With Teens
Julie Geddes
Teenline
1200 NE 13th
Oklahoma City OK 73117
405-522-3835
Participants will learn communication skills to assist teens by giving them the tools to explore their options and to make their own decisions. Communication and problem solving skills become overwhelming for youth when their issues go unresolved. Participants will take part in role-play using active listening skills. We will explore several techniques to enable youth to regain some control in their lives. Youth who are at risk often feel out of balance and anxious. With assistance, teens can be given those inner qualities needed for conflict resolution within themselves. Encouraging, restating, reflecting, and summarizing will be the key pieces explored. Examples and techniques of open ended and close-ended questions will be demonstrated with the use of stories with holes and actual role-play from calls received at TEENLINE.
The basic call encompasses establishing trust/relationship through:
1. Purpose of the call
2. Active listening/minimal encouragers
3. Reflect callers words/feelings
4. The issue(s)/clarify and choose one
5. Problem solving/brain storming for options
6. The plan
7. Praise for courage to call for help
8. Closing
This session will suggest ways of working more successfully with the caller and will include strategies for helping the
client identify needs for change and taking steps toward implementing that change. We will explore the opportunity to aid
the caller by providing a valid form of intervention, relieving paralyzing feelings, enabling caller to make realistic
decisions, and finally to reinforce balance in their lives.