Adolescent Conduct Disorders: A New Way of Viewing Behavioral Acting Out

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Acting out behavior, especially among school age children, has been a frustrating and hard to change problem for therapists, teachers and parents.  Complicating this issue is that conduct disordered behavior, especially in boys, is often misdiagnosed and instead labeled as ADD/ADHD, bipolar disorder, major depression, sociopathy or simply a “bad kid.”  Many of these children are inappropriately prescribed psychotropic medication in a desperate attempt to control their behavior.

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Dr. Hill will present a systems-based approach to treatment that minimizes pathology as a cause and emphasize techniques from social learning, family therapy, cognitive therapy, and with a specific focus on attachment disorders within the family system.

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Dr. Hill will also address how to work with parents to teach them how to set limits with their children and deal with the attachment issues that are at the core of any dysfunctional parent/child interaction.

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This workshop will cover the following issues:

• How to initially intervene and reduce the acting out behavior

• How to help the acting out child develop better coping skills and deal with internal affect leading to low self esteem and a negative sense of self

• How to help the family system reorganize so that daily family interactions do not inadvertently maintain the symptoms and lead to further dysfunction

• A discussion of how attachment theory can help in understanding the genesis of conduct disorder

• How to teach parents more effective parenting skills such as limit setting and how to initiate a more positive and deeper connection with their children

 

This workshop will be both didactic and interactive and will allow time for questions and answers.