Connecting to the Disconnected: Creative Approaches for Building Rapport with Teens
But I can’t compete with Social Media…
It’s no surprise that as the adolescent population becomes more connected to the cyber world, it becomes more difficult to connect with them in the home office. Yet, it is imperative that counselors adequately connect to their younger clients as it is not only a key indicator of client retention in therapy, but it’s also highly predictive of therapeutic outcomes (Bennett, Lee, Lindahl, Wharton, & Mark, 2017). When working with this population, consider the following to assist with building a lasting rapport:
Connect with Music: Counselors can find out a lot about the adolescents they work with by the music they listen to and the bands/artists they follow. Consider asking them to share the top five songs on their playlist or their favorite band/artist and ask them what draws them to those five. If they want to play one or two in session, let them!
Connect with Emotion: Adolescents don’t always know how to describe their feelings. Counselors can assist and participate with them in a creative check-in (emotionally, physically, mentally and spiritually) using things like: colors, vehicles, song titles, movie characters, and animals.
Connect with Technology: Apps such as Stigma, Moodtrack, Happify, DBT Skills Card, Calm, and Headspace can be effective tools for incorporating evidence based interventions both in session and between sessions without it feeling like “homework”.
The most important aspect of working with adolescents is to connect with the things that are important to them. If it’s a certain sport, read up about that sport and get to know the latest “news”. If it’s the arts, get in the floor and help them create a vision boards. If it’s animals, invite them to bring their pet into a session. Invest in them and they will invest in the process! Happy connecting!
References
Bennett, E. D., Lee, K., Lindahl, K., Wharton, S., & Mark, T. W. (2017). Five Out of the
Box Techniques for Encouraging Teenagers to Engage in Counseling. Retrieved June 6, 2018,
https://www.counseling.org/docs/default-source/vistas/encouraging-teenagers.pdf?sfvrsn=4