Mode Deactivation Therapy for Aggression and Oppositional Behavior in Adolescents

Adolescents who exhibit oppositional or aggressive behavior often suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, or depression, but diagnosing their conditions isn't the challenge for most therapists. Rather, distrust of therapists and unwillingness to cooperate with treatment most often keep these teens from moving beyond their destructive behaviors and finding real solutions to their problems. Mode Deactivation Therapy for Aggression and Oppositional Behavior in Adolescents is a treatment manual for therapists working with adolescents who have oppositional defiant disorder, hostile behaviors, anger issues, and aggression. These teens often clash with authority figures in school, if they attend at all, and may be hostile and oppositional in social settings. Unlike similar professional treatments, this protocol does not invalidate teens' beliefs and encourages teens to cooperate and openly participate in the therapeutic process. The book is based in mode deactivation therapy, a combination of cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavior therapy, functional analytic psychotherapy, and acceptance and commitment therapy that the authors developed specifically to meet the needs of this population. Therapists will learn how to get through to their clients, identify the function of teens' negative and destructive behaviors, dismantle negative beliefs endorsed by their clients, and teach mindfulness, defusion, and acceptance strategies. Through validation, clarification, and redirection, therapists can change the lives of oppositional teens dramatically.

About the Author :
Jack A. Apsche, EdD, ABPP is program director for the masters program in forensic psychology at Walden University and consultant of clinical services at North Spring Behavioral Healthcare. He is founder of the Apsche Center at North Spring in Leesburg, VA. He also serves as editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Behavioral Consultation and Therapy and is associate editor of Behavior Analyst Today. He developed, implemented, and tested mode deactivation therapy, which expands on cognitive behavioral therapy and is focused on conceptualizing and treating adolescents. Lucia R. DiMeo, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and hypnotherapist. She has a special interest in mind/body therapeutic modalities. She is associate professor of psychology at the University of the Virgin Islands. Foreword writer Robert J. Kohlenberg, PhD, ABPP, is professor of psychology at the University of Washington. He is cocreator of functional analytic psychotherapy (FAP), a behavior analytic approach to understanding the mechanism of action that operates in curative therapist-client relationships.

Review :
"Adolescents can be tough to treat under any circumstance. Sometimes, serious and complex psychological difficulties converge with that perfect storm of adolescent social development, individuation, and emotional upheaval, and the challenge is taken to a whole new level. Apsche and DeMio have done the hard work of integrating the best of evidence-based interventions and have created a tremendous resource targeting this extraordinarily challenging population." --Kelly G. Wilson, PhD, associate professor at the University of Mississippi and author of Mindfulness for Two and The Wisdom to Know the Difference "For the clinician working with adolescents, mode deactivation therapy provides a practical and innovative approach to internalizing and externalizing disorders that takes concepts drawn from cognitive behavior therapy in new and interesting directions. The step-by-step approach to assessment and case conceptualization presented in this book is especially helpful and is the result of years of development work in the field." --Steven C. Hayes, PhD, Foundation Professor of Psychology at the University of Nevada "For those of us who realize that medication alone is seldom effective for adolescents with aggressive and/or oppositional behaviors, Mode Deactivation Therapy for Treating Aggression and Oppositional Behavior in Adolescents is an essential companion. This therapeutic approach allies therapists with adolescents. Therapists learn to accept their clients in total and empower them to change. Jack Apsche and Lucia DiMeo have produced a book that is a must-read for any inpatient or outpatient clinician dedicated to understanding and treating the entire child--mind, body, and emotions." --Robia A. Fields, MD, board-certified psychiatrist and medical director at a residential facility for children and adolescents "Working with angry, aggressive, and oppositional adolescents is fraught with significant challenges as well as rewards. This new guidebook should go a long way in diminishing the former while increasing the latter. The authors' empirically-supported therapy creatively integrates critical elements of other cognitive behavioral approaches into an easy-to-follow protocol that collaboratively engages adolescents in their own treatment." --Robert Zettle, PhD, professor of psychology at Wichita State University and author of ACT for Depression