Teen Choices Workbook – Facilitator Reproducible Self-Assessments, Exercises & Educational Handouts (Teen Mental Health and Life Skills Workbook Series) (Teen Mental Heatlh and Life Skills Workbook)

John J. Liptak, EdD, frequently conducts workshops on assessment-related topics. He has written three books on career-related topics and these books have been featured in numerous newspapers including The Washington Post, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Associated Press. His work has also been featured on MSNBC, CNN Radio and on the PAX / ION television series, Success without a College Degree. John has many years of experience in providing counseling services to individuals and groups in a variety of settings including job training programs, correctional institutions, and colleges and universities. In addition, John has about ten years of teaching experience as an assistant professor. With Kathy Khalsa and Ester Leutenberg, he has written three other comprehensive books for teachers and counselors to use with their students and clients: The Self-Esteem Program, The Social Skills Program and The Stress Management Program: Inventories, Activities & Educational Handouts. With Whole Person Associates, he and Ester Leutenberg continue to co-write books to add to their Mental Health & Life Skills Workbook series.

Ester R.A. Leutenberg has worked in the mental health field for many years as a publisher, author and advocate for those suffering from loss. She personally experienced a devastating loss when her son Mitchell, after struggling with a mental illness for eight years, died by suicide in 1986. Soon after, as a way of both healing and helping others, Ester co-founded Wellness Reproductions & Publishing with her daughter Kathy Khalsa and began developing therapeutic products that help facilitators help their clients. Ester is the co-author of the SEALS series for teen-agers, Life Management Skills series for adults and Meaningful Life Skills for older adults, as well as a variety of other therapeutic card games, board games and posters. Ester has co-written GriefWork ~ Healing from Loss, The GriefWork Companion and Creating a Healthy Balanced Life. Ester and John have co-written the Mental Health & Life Skills Workbook Series, the Teen Mental Health & Life Skills Workbook Series and are currently working on the Coping Workbook Series, all published by Whole Person Associates.

Facilitator Reproducible Self-Assessments, Exercises, & Educational Handouts

Life is about making choices. Today’s teens live in a far more challenging atmosphere than past generations and they face many important choices that both positively and negatively affect their growth and development. Their success in life is a result of the choices they make as they mature and that those that they will make in the future.

During adolescence, making effective independent choices is often a point of contention between teens and adults (parents, teachers, grandparents, etc.). As teens mature, they face increasing demands to learn to make choices more independently and to take more responsibility for their own choices. Choices allow teens to change how they are currently living their lives (if they are not happy where they are) or continue to live responsibly by making even more effective choices.

Teen Choices Workbook contains five separate sections to help participants learn more about choices they have made and choices they have yet to make in their lives:

• Teen Action Choices helps teens analyze the factors that primarily influence the decisions they make and define how effectively they are using their time.
• Teen Relationships Choices helps teens examine how they make choices about acquaintances, friends, best friends, and dating friends.
• Teen Cultural Differences helps teens explore how accepting and receptive they are to people who are different from themselves.
• Teen ”Not-So-Great” Choices helps teens reconsider the choices they made in the past that were not successful and outline more effective decision-making techniques.
• Teen Risk-Taking Behavior helps teens investigate both the positive and the negative risks they have taken and discover ways to choose healthy risks.

  The Teen Choices Workbook is designed to be used either independently or as part of an integrated curriculum. Assessments and journaling exercise may be used effectively with either individuals or with a group. The following tools are included in each section:

• Assessment instruments
• Activity handouts
• Quotations
• Reflective questions for journaling
• Educational handouts