Youth (ADOLESCENTS)

The challenges faced by youth are aggravated by social media and online culture. When combined with home conflict, separation and divorce, problems can be overwhelming. However, emotional fluctuations are natural. There is nothing unhealthy about feeling sad or anxious from time to time. Most teenagers do.

Facilitated conversation: a way forward

Reflective Mediation hosts conversations that bridge the gap between parents and youth. We facilitate positive conversations that invite parents and teenagers to speak on an equal footing. Each participant has a chance to be understood, and to understand the feelings, struggles and needs of other family members.

Agreements are reached in a collaborative format. Everyone participates. Everyone is accountable. Instead of an authoritarian regime, the home is experienced as an environment of mutual responsibility, accountability and respect.

Topics that may be addressed include:

• Adjusting to separation, divorce and mixed families

• Establishing household cooperation

• Addressing school refusal and/or lack of motivation

• Repairing social isolation and lack of engagement

• Responding constructively to peer discord and bullying 

• Managing impulsivity and risk-taking

The format of our facilitated conversation differs based on the specific situation the youth is experiencing:

• Private coaching for youth: We can assist confused, anxious, unmotivated youth to clarify their goals, identify obstacles, develop strategies to overcome resistance, to acquire greater self-knowledge & self-acceptance through private coaching.

• Private coaching for parents: To acquire skills of deep listening to draw out and better understand their teenager, to practice a non-judgmental approach to raising concerns and giving advice, to master a collaborative approach to problem-solving and decision-making.

• Mediated conversations: Mediated conversations at school and at home allow youth and parent(s)/guardian(s) to come up with their own solutions to problems after having listened to and understood one another.

• Child Protection Mediation and VOC (Voice of Child) Reports: Parents in high conflict separation, and divorce cases, occasionally require the intervention of Child Inclusive Mediation in order to determine the best interest of the child(ren). This is crucial in court cases, since “best interest of the child” is the only criterion on which legal decisions can be made on any disputed issue.