“An excellent resource for professionals working with teens or their parents.”

—Youth Today


“This skillfully crafted text by Ron Taffel, PhD, offers a new method of therapeutic engagement with adolescents of the 21st century....Taffel uses his 25 years of expansive clinical experience, along with his personal experience, to develop an approach to working with the group he affectionately calls .the new adolescent'....Breaking Through to Teens is a book that has value as both a comprehensive first read and as a text used for frequent, repeated reference in work with young adults. Structured in a way that provides the background, rationale, and implementation of relational-behavioral therapy, this book also includes invaluable real-life examples that reinforce lessons learned and illustrate the strategies employed....Leaving this text is like leaving a good professional workshop or conference. You are inspired, reminded of old concepts, enlightened by old concepts in new frames, and interested in learning more about new concepts just introduced. You have smiled and grinned, been challenged to think, and perhaps even made a new friend. Social workers, psychologists, parents, and those whose work gives them the honor of interacting with adolescents all stand to gain from this inspiring new approach to our new adolescents.”

—Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal


“The author, an experienced clinician, writes in a personal, friendly, and pragmatic way with plenty of clinical examples. A simple common-sense wisdom permeates this book....I strongly recommend this book for anybody working with this age group....The authenticity, humility, and genuine care of the author constitute an experience of empathic connection with the reader.”

—Journal of the Canadian Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry


“Blends crucial insights into teen culture with the hard-earned knowledge of what can get through to the troubled adolescents of today's world....Extremely valuable both as a parenting resource and as a professional sourcebook of general understanding and specific techniques for youth psychologists and family counselors. Highly recommended especially for psychology reference shelves.”

—Midwest Book Review


“This is a thoughtful, well-written book that should be valuable to clinicians working with teens and their families....Provides today's clinicians with further useful tools for work with adolescents and their families.”

—Doody's Review Service


“Taffel's extensive experience counseling young people and families jumps off the pages of this book. Informed by a down-to-earth appreciation of adolescent development and the challenges faced by today's youth and parents, Taffel provides respectful advice and strategies for helping teens and caretakers resolve specific problems and navigate the adventurous waters of adolescence. A very handy resource for school psychologists and others who consult and counsel with teens and their parents.”

—John J. Murphy, PhD, School Psychology Program, University of Central Arkansas


“This is a remarkable book written by a renowned psychologist and therapist. Dr. Taffel presents a new, exciting approach for working with adolescents of the 21st century. He describes this approach with exquisite clarity and vivid case examples, and in the process challenges long-held views of existing therapy models. Every page bears witness to Dr. Taffel's empathy and warmth and his understanding of adolescents and their families. This book is a wonderful resource for both beginning and experienced therapists, and should also serve as a major text in courses in counseling and therapy.”

—Robert Brooks, PhD, Harvard Medical School; author of The Self-Esteem Teacher


“Taffel provides us with a veritable feast of wonderful and compelling ideas about how to make deep connections with 21st-century adolescents. A welcome antidote to all the hand-wringing about the alien behavior of 'kids today,' Taffel's relational-behavioral paradigm fills a void left by traditional theories that do not emphasize an authentic and enduring relationship as the primary treatment technique for reaching teens. From the numerous, specific case examples and therapy dialogues, to precise questions to consider and ask, this book fills a hunger that therapists—like the parents and adolescents they treat—have for guidance without equivocation. Graduate students, beginning clinicians, and experienced practitioners will find here a powerful approach to making and sustaining transformative alliances with these most challenging cases.”

—Martha B. Straus, PhD, Department of Clinical Psychology, Antioch New England Graduate School


“Dr. Taffel returns from the front lines of working with kids and parents, with scary yet hopeful stories of what he sees today. His account is bold, honest, and clear. What we used to call 'at-risk' behavior is now normal teen behavior. America faces an epidemic of culturally induced anxiety in teens. Parents are not really in control. For clinicians who feel in over their heads with today's teens and families (and who doesn't?), thanks to this book, help is on the way.”

—Mary Pipher, PhD, author of Reviving Ophelia


“In this radical and exciting book, Dr. Taffel issues a challenge to counselors and therapists working with teenagers: Stop being so passive! Rethink the old rules! In this shrink-savvy generation, kids are expert at manipulating their parents and their therapists. Dr. Taffel offers many specific, helpful suggestions for getting teens into therapy and for getting them to stop their self-destructive behaviors.”

—Michael Thompson, PhD, coauthor of Raising Cain