Coming Together to Move Apart: Family Therapy for Enhancing Adolescent Development

An important goal of adolescent development is emotional separation from the family of origin. Differing views on how to accomplish this task exist, and these are reflected in the choice of treatment modality. It has been common practice in the treatment of adolescents for work with parents to be done separately from the adolescent. Since social, cultural, and economic factors have an impact on development, as society changes it is important to think creatively about effective ways to accomplish the process of becoming a functioning adult. It is in this context that authors have focused recently on the need for young adults to have a positive connection with their parents. This paper will address the role of involvement of family in the psychotherapy of adolescents either by inviting them to participate in some of the individual sessions or through conjoint family therapy to facilitate forward development. Clinical illustrations will demonstrate the issues of an adolescent with unresolved early traumatic separation, an adolescent who is fulfilling parental needs, an adolescent with too much power in the family, the importance of beginning treatment after assessing where everyone is emotionally, and the problem of premature disconnection by parents.