Our Teenskills© course is an effective program of personal development. Teenagers learn key skills to overcome challenges in the following areas:

1. Motivation
Sometimes an eager and adventurous child may turn into an adolescent who seems to have no sense of direction. Adolescence is often a time during which young people become aware of how complex and difficult adult life is. What seemed easy may now seem difficult. This realisation results in teenagers feeling a lack of motivation. Motivated adolescents will have more persistence and drive to reach their potential and achieve their goals.

2. Anxiety
Anxiety can have a negative impact on an adolescent’s life. Anxious teenagers are often shy, resulting in fewer friends. They may not perform academically to their full potential as excessive worry may prevent them from approaching tasks confidently. Adolescents learn to manage their anxiety by learning to think realistically about the world and feel less threatened by different situations.

3. Building Self Esteem
During adolescence major physiological and psychological changes occur. These changes may cause adolescents to feel stressed and uncomfortable. Consequently self esteem may be lowered as they feel awkward and lacking self confidence. Self esteem is a precious psychological quality and is perhaps the most essential ingredient of an adolescent’s inner confidence. Healthy self esteem improves their chances of making the best of their potential and helping them withstand stress.

4. Social Skills
Adolescents need to develop key social skills to function well at home, school, in their peer group and in society in general. Development of communication skills will enable adolescents to listen accurately and empathetically. Assertiveness is another valuable skill as confident adolescents will rarely have to resort to aggressive and passive tactics in order to get what they want out of life and relationships. Making and maintaining friendships is another important social skill. Through friendships, teenagers learn about themselves in the wider social world and their ability to affect it. Finally, our program teaches adolescents valuable strategies to manage bullying.

Additional Support
Solution Focus Psychology views a family as a system that is affected by all of its parts. We promote the importance of the family as a whole and strongly encourage the involvement of parents. This is achieved through:

	One on one sessions with parents, children or both
	A 2 hour group session facilitated for parents. This group is structured to give you an opportunity to debrief about the program with other parents, share experiences and create understanding contacts. We will also discuss implementing strategies at home to promote your child's new skills.

Access to this service
These programs are offered at Solution Focus Psychology’s rooms and some courses are run during school holidays. There is a maximum of 8 children or teenagers to a group. They are also offered to school groups at their location.

More information Please contact us on (02) 9223 6660 to discuss course costs, location, agenda and course dates. For more information view some of our brochures: Teenskills© brochure Teenskills© registration form (to view PDF files you will require Adobe Acrobat Reader which can be downloaded here for free)