Welcome to the Reaching Teens community. We are a group of youth-serving professionals and community members who care for and about young people, and who are willing to be intentional about being the kind of adults who will support all youth to thrive.

Because you entered the electronic version of Reaching Teens through the pathway specific for your practice setting, you will receive the following tailored materials.

• An introduction to why Reaching Teens is particularly relevant in your setting.
• Suggested chapters that will be most helpful to you.
• Group learning and discussion/personal reflections cases written for the youth you interact with in your setting.

The pathway designed for your setting does not exclude you from any content. Rather, it gives you the option of streamlining your experience.  We suggest that in addition to taking advantage of the pathway, you become familiar with the other options of navigating Reaching Teens. Chapter 10 offers a detailed description, but Navigating Reaching Teens provides a good summary.

[Please note that if you view a chapter from the below access points, you will get the general audience materials, whereas if it has been selected in your setting-specific pathway and you access it from that pathway, you may have tailored materials.]

Getting Oriented to the Toolkit

You may find it useful to first have an overview of key philosophical and practice points. Once you “own” these, you’ll get more out of every other chapter.

We recommend the following chapters to get started:

• “Reaching Teens: Preparing You to Become the Adult Young People Need in Their Lives” (Chapter 1)
• “Reframing Adolescence: Holding Youth to High Expectations and Refuting Undermining Portrayals” (Chapter 6)
• “Understanding and Supporting Healthy Adolescent Development” (Chapter 13)
• “The Language of Resilience” (Chapter 27)
• “Trauma Sensitive Practice: Working with Youth Who Have Faced Adverse Childhood (or Adolescent) Experiences” (Chapter 37)
• “Reframing Youth Who Have Endured Trauma and Marginalization” (Chapter 38)
• “Focusing and Building on Existing Strengths: A Strategy to Overcome Risks and to Prepare Adolescents to Be Their Best Selves” (Chapter 44)
• “Healer, Heal Thyself: Self-care for the Caregiver” (Chapter 90)

Orienting New Staff

Professional development (PD) sessions are generally offered in an annual or biannual cycle. This means that staff hired on an ongoing basis may not be exposed to key information until the next time the topic is offered. This leaves them unprepared to join your organizational culture, and more importantly could lead to their making unnecessary errors in serving youth. In addition, many staff may be coming from programs that do not use a strength-based perspective and will need extra support to shift to this approach.

You may assign these chapters to orient new staff prior to their contact with youth:

• “Reaching Teens: Preparing You to Become the Adult Young People Need in Their Lives” (Chapter 1)
• “Boundaries” (Chapter 24)
• “De-escalation and Crisis Management When a Youth Is Acting Out” (Chapter 34)
• “Trauma Sensitive Practice: Working with Youth Who Have Faced Adverse Childhood (or Adolescent) Experiences” (Chapter 37)
• “Focusing and Building on Existing Strengths: A Strategy to Overcome Risks and to Prepare Adolescents to Be Their Best Selves” (Chapter 44)
• “Helping Youth Overcome Shame and Stigma (and Doing Our Best to Not Be a Part of the Problem)” (Chapter 49)
• If new staff does not a youth-development background:
  • “Understanding and Supporting Healthy Adolescent Development” (Chapter 13)

Familiarizing Yourself with All 95 Chapters Available

You can see the overall Table of Contents here. 

If you want to see a brief overview of what each chapter contains, the easiest way to view that is by looking at the introduction page to each of the 11 Reaching Teens sections. The introduction page offers a brief description of each chapter in the section. Click to see the chapters within each section.

• Section 1 (Chapters 1–6): Orientation to a Strength Based Approach sets the philosophical tone and rationale for strength-based, trauma-sensitive communication.
• Section 2 (Chapters 7–12): Orientation to Using Reaching Teens as a Toolkit offers strategies to get the most out of this toolkit in your personal practice or professional setting.
• Section 3 (Chapters 13–21): Understanding Adolescents and Their World prepares you to consider the developmental milieu and environmental contexts that affect teens.
• Section 4 (Chapters 22–25): Connecting with Adolescents and Their Families offers strategies to build trustworthy and effective relationships.
• Section 5 (Chapters 26–35): Communicating with Adolescents offers essential strategies and approaches to reach youth and facilitate behavioral change.
• Section 6 (Chapters 36–43): Working with Adolescents Who Have Endured Trauma and Marginalization focuses on applying trauma-sensitive practices.
• Section 7 (Chapters 44–51): Empowering Adolescents to Build on their Strengths and Avoid Undermining Behaviors offers specific strategies that use a shared decision-making model to empower youth to make wiser decisions and healthier choices.
• Section 8 (Chapters 52–58): Supporting Effective Parenting considers how we as youth-serving professionals can support parents to most effectively monitor and guide their children.
• Section 9 (Chapters 59–79): Mental, Emotional. And Behavioral Health includes strategies to help youth navigate a variety of specific psychosocial and environmental challenges.
• Section 10 (Chapters 80–89): Serving Young People Deserving of Focused Attention addresses the specific needs of unique populations.
• Section 11 (Chapters 90–95): Caring for the Caregivers recognizes that this work is emotionally challenging, sometimes exhausting and demoralizing, and that unless we care for ourselves with the same degree of commitment with which we care for others, our capacity to serve over a lifetime will be diminished.

Broader Topics and Overarching Themes

Whether you use Reaching Teens to develop professional development sessions or are navigating it on your own, you will likely want to teach (or learn) overarching themes or broader topics. In some cases, a single chapter will suffice for a topic (e.g., depression). In most cases, however, you’ll consider topics like “How to remain calm amidst chaos,” or “How to transform to trauma-sensitive practices.” In these cases, you’ll want to draw key elements from a group of chapters.

Below are some topics we know based on feedback and experience that the Reaching Teens community have been interested in. Others may be added as we gain feedback from the second edition. Click here to see the variety of chapters that intersect to support each topic. You’ll notice that many key chapters exist in more than one unit. This allows for reinforcement of critical concepts.

• Transforming to a Strength-Based Approach
• Helping Communities and Youth-Serving Professionals See Youth Through a Strength-Based Lens
• Reframing Youth: Addressing and Refuting an Undermining Cultural Narrative About Youth
• Honoring Diversity and Practicing Cultural Humility
• The Basics of Effective Communication With Youth
• Adolescent Development 101
• Adolescent Resilience 101
• Instituting Trauma-Sensitive Practices
• Helping Young People Learn Self-regulation Both to Calm Their Minds and to Improve Their Behavior
• Stress Management
• Building a Sense of Control Within Youth
• Maintaining Your Cool Amidst Chaos So You Can Better Co-regulate With Youth and Settle Their Behaviors
• Supporting Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Health
• Meeting the Needs of Youth Who Are Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, or Queer/Questioning
• Creating Effective Professional Boundaries
• Preventing Professional Burnout
• Self-care for Youth-Serving Professionals

As an athletic coach or youth sports professional, you have a pivotal role in young lives. Young people may first come to your program because they want to play or because they want to improve their abilities within a sport, but your program creates a framework through which they can develop physical, emotional, and behavioral strengths. And, because of you, within that framework there is the opportunity for young people to connect with at least one adult who is invested in their growth.

• “Finding Resilience in Sports and Physically Active Recreation” (Chapter 60). This chapter is about the positive and transformative nature of sports and physically active recreation.
• “Reaching Teens: Preparing You to Become the Kind of Adult Young People Need in Their Lives” (Chapter 1). This chapter sets the tone for why a strength-based approach positions adults to make a difference in young lives.
• “Reframing Adolescence: Holding Youth to High Expectations and Refuting Undermining Portrayals” (Chapter 6). Myths and misperceptions about adolescence generate a false storyline that harms teens’ self-perceptions and undermines adult-youth engagement. If young people are falsely seen as inherently risky or irrational, adults will believe they have little influence. If young people are seen as rejecting adult guidance, or uniformly resentful of parental involvement, adults will pull away precisely when they should be drawing nearer.
• “The Power of Safe, Secure, Sustained Relationships in the Lives of Youth” (Chapter 40). We know that young people thrive, and even heal from hard lives, when they have meaningful connections with adults.
• “Have I Really Made a Difference? Trusting That Our Presence Matters” (Chapter 95). Do you remember your coaches growing up? Do you remember one who believed in you during moments when you weren’t sure you believed in yourself? This is the power of adults. Sometimes, we don’t even know the difference we make.

Our work happens within the context of adolescent development—a process that includes cognitive, behavioral, physical, and social transformation. Adolescent development can often appear mysterious. and over generations it has been viewed both as a time of storm and stress and a period of opportunity and promise. We now understand that a key to it not being a time of storm and stress is the presence of caring adults who serve as guides for young people while also celebrating their growing independence and newly developing skill-sets. That doesn’t mean there won’t be difficult times, there may be. But they will get through them more easily with those same caring adults.

In this section, we discuss that there are keys to understanding adolescent development. Understanding this process is the starting place for effective relationships that support young people to become their best selves. It helps you learn to communicate more effectively with young people. It enables you to help them develop their rapidly increasing thinking capacities. In particular, coaches and youth sports professionals can be meaningful in helping adolescents to understand and adapt to their changing bodies and emerging sexuality with dignity, respect, and health-awareness.

• “Understanding and Supporting Healthy Adolescent Development” (Chapter 13). This chapter offers a whirlwind tour of the social, cognitive (thinking and reasoning), emotional, and moral development of youth, but focuses on those points that affect our ability to effectively interact with youth.
• “The Teen Brain” (Chapter 15). This chapter offers a basic understanding of how to communicate in a way that brings out the best in youth, understanding the balancing act between their finely tuned emotions and developing rational thought.
• “Sex(uality) Happens: Fostering Healthy, Positive (Female) Sexuality” (Chapter 17). The playing field and locker rooms are places where sexuality is often discussed. Coaches can be highly trusted people for young people to check in on their changing bodies and to develop a healthy and respectful approach to romantic partners.
• “Male Sexuality” (Chapter 18). The playing field and locker rooms are places where sexuality is often discussed. Coaches can be highly trusted people for young people to check in on their changing bodies and to develop a healthy and respectful approach to romantic partners.
• “Working Toward a Healthy Masculinity” (Chapter 21). Toxic masculinity is pervasive in society. It may play out on the sports field. Coaches have the opportunity to help young men learn that it is masculine to express feelings and to be uniformly respectful to others.

In this section, we focus on strategies to promote effective communication with adolescents. We think you and your colleagues will find that these strategies can be applied on the field as well as in the meaningful and sometimes challenging one-on-one conversations that we are often called to have with young people on the sidelines.

These strategies are developmental, which means that they incorporate an understanding of cognitive and social changes that occur in adolescence (reviewed in detail in the section “Understanding Adolescent Development”). They are also, intentionally, strength-based and trauma-sensitive.

These chapters help professionals learn how to guide adolescents in ways that engage rather than alienate them, and that treat adolescents as capable of making wise decisions for themselves with appropriate support. The chapters also address how to communicate the importance of adult guidance in young lives, and how to guide youth in ways that they will embrace them rather than be interpreted as efforts to control them.

• “The 7 Cs: An Interdisciplinary Model That Integrates Positive Youth Development, Resilience-Building Strategies, and Trauma-Sensitive Practices” (Chapter 2). This is an overview of factors that promote resilience. While it is not explicitly about communication, it tells you the strengths you want to communicate about.
• “Communicating With Adolescents 101” (Chapter 26). This overview reinforces basic principles of effective communication.
• “The Language of Resilience” (Chapter 27). This chapter offers examples of how we support versus undermine resilience with our words.
• “Body Language” (Chapter 30). We can reinforce or undermine our connection with youth through nonverbal communication. We can calm or trigger others with subtle signals sent through our bodies. In fact, our words represent the smaller fraction of what we convey to others. People skilled in the use of body language can better engage and empower people, as well as diffuse tension.
• “Setting the Stage for a Trustworthy Relationship” (Chapter 23). This chapter covers the core issues that youth-serving professionals must communicate to young people to gain their trust. Young people sometimes see the adults in their lives as having only one role. If you are a coach, you may choose to explicitly state to your youth that you care about them on and off the field, court, or pool. However, if you broaden your relationship in this way, young people must know the benefits and limitations of that relationship.
• “Delivering Bad News to Adolescents” (Chapter 35). You will be there through many challenges in the lives of the youth you serve. You may find yourself needing to be the bearer of difficult news. This chapter prepares you to fulfill this role.
• “Focusing and Building on Existing Strengths: A Strategy to Overcome Risks and to Prepare Adolescents to Be Their Best Selves” (Chapter 44). This chapter is the heart of Reaching Teens. It is about seeing young people the way they deserve to be seen, and leveraging their behaviorally operational strengths to drive their forward progress. This can be useful with all young people, but can be key to engaging demoralized youth who may have internalized disempowering messages.
• “Motivational Interviewing” (Chapter 46). This strategy facilitates youth to consider the best options for them. It trusts them as the experts in their own lives and lets them guide their own progress. It is well-proven that its empowering approach is more effective than telling young people what to do.
• “Helping Adolescents Own Their Solutions: Talking With Youth, Not at Them” (Chapter 48). This chapter offers an approach to facilitate youth to make their own decisions. It offers communication strategies to use in lieu of the dreaded lecture, which backfires by triggering and disempowering youth. It also offers a strategy for working with youth who have grown to view themselves as powerless in their ability to move away from worrisome behaviors. It allows them to contemplate alternate futures and take simple steps toward desirable behaviors.

For many youth, the athletic field is the first space where they experience a sense of “team.” More than just a shared identity, this sense can arise from sharing a purpose, working alongside peers, making contributions to a shared goal, valuing the contributions of others, learning to accept the help of others, setting aside one’s own interests for the greater good, and experiencing hardship and victory as a collective.

The lessons that youth learn about valuing and working with others on the playing field can translate to their academic, professional, family, and community lives in enduring ways. These lessons tend to be ones that foster positive and productive connections—but perhaps we can all point to examples where an authentic sense of team was stifled by team members who brought their own pre-judgments and biases, or programs that reinforced messages that were toxic to the inherent connectedness between people.

Life, we might say, is a team sport. The small victories of our daily lives, along with the greatest achievements in human history, come most easily when we work well together. Yet, history, experience, and research have shown that we all bring forms of bias to life’s playing field that can prevent us from fully connecting with and honoring the contributions of others. Conscious or not, the limitations of bias seem to be part of our human nature—though we can work to address them.

In this section, we have assembled a group of chapters that discuss some of the most pervasive barriers to building authentic teams, along with strategies to overcome them.

Coaches, and the adults that join them in creating youth sport and recreation programs, are essential to building authentic teams. With that statement comes the recognition that these adults can lead in ways that inadvertently reinforce discord between team members, or purposefully address the barriers that divide them. A coach can transform lives in positive ways when she or he helps a team to learn the vital lesson of honoring each person’s contribution and promoting each person’s growth, while setting aside prejudgments and low expectations. For coaches to step, with awareness, into this transformative role they must be sensitive to differences between people, self-reflective about their own biases, and intentional about creating experiences that bring team members closer together.

• “Cultural Humility” (Chapter 28). We are all “other” to somebody, and the only way we can be uniformly respectful to people is to consistently be prepared to learn about their culture and environment. A critical first step in being culturally humble, however, is having an awareness of our own unconscious biases.
• “Examining Our Unconscious Biases” (Chapter 29). Unconscious thinking patterns and assumptions can interfere with our ability to objectively draw the most appropriate conclusions, and even guide people towards their most positive futures. A first step to changing them is understanding that we have them.
• “Reframing Youth Who Have Endured Trauma and Marginalization” (Chapter 38). Some youth who have had the hardest lives have earned the right to be initially suspicious and reactive. However, they also possess particularly high levels of loyalty and compassion. It is worth investing in these youth, because once they know that they are safe, they will be some of your most productive teammates. And, your presence as a role model can transform their lives.
• “The Traumatic Impact of Racism and Discrimination on Young People and How to Talk About It” (Chapter 42). This chapter discusses the life-course impact of chronic stressors such as racial discrimination. It prepares professionals to have authentic discussion with youth about these undermining forces.
• “Youth Who Are Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, or Queer/Questioning” (Chapter 82). Every coach will have players who are LGBQ. For these youth who endure discrimination and bullying, coaches and teammates can create a critically important space. We know that youth who are accepted by key people in their lives thrive.
• “Serving Youth Who Are Transgender and Gender Diverse” (Chapter 83). These youth can endure discrimination and bullying. Coaches and teammates can create a critically important space. We know that youth who are accepted by key people in their lives thrive.
• “Reaching Youth Who Are Immigrants” (Chapter 84). In an era where youth who are immigrants are likely to experience discrimination, it is imperative that safe spaces with full acceptance are created for them.

Elite athletes and high-performing teams are often regarded for their extraordinary capacity for self-discipline. In youth sport and recreation programs, we extol the virtues of practice, preparation, and effort. For young people, the playing fields of sports are fertile grounds where these and other seeds of self-discipline are planted and grown.

There are multiple ways in which the topic of “discipline” matters to coaches and youth sports professionals. A starting point, however, is to remember that the linguistic roots of the word “discipline” mean to teach or instruct, rather than to punish or control.

With awareness, coaches and youth sports professionals can:

• Help youth learn self-discipline, which is a skill-set that is developed through self-regulation
• Maintain team discipline by having skill-sets to de-escalate tensions and heal discord and disagreement
• Help parents learn effective discipline strategies

In order to teach these lessons with the greatest effects, we must also be prepared to model self-regulation. By doing so, the young people we serve will learn to trust that our interest is in promoting their growth through instruction, rather than subjecting them to our anger and frustrations.

This section contains chapters that review key considerations that inform and relate to the topic of discipline, as well as strategies that can help to build a healthy culture of discipline on your team.

Preparing Yourself to Be the Kind of Adult Who Can Influence Young People to Self-regulate

• “Radical Calmness” (Chapter 41). This chapter discusses the importance of, and approaches to, remaining calm even in the face of challenging youth behavior. Calm begets calm, reinforces felt-safety, and therefore lowers hyperarousal and the need for hypervigilance. It is key to co-regulation, and co-regulation is the key to helping young people learn to self-regulate.
• “Trauma-Sensitive Practice: Working With Youth Who Have Faced Adverse Childhood (or Adolescent) Experiences” (Chapter 37). One of the core principles of trauma-sensitive practice is “Knowing what is about you and what is not about you.” Young people who have endured hardships can be more reactive and initially less trusting. If you experience that as off-putting, you will become defensive, which can decrease your effectiveness. On the other hand, if you understand that behavior reflects someone’s past experiences, you can learn to remain “radically calm” even amidst tension. It is not about you, but you can be part of the solution.
• “The Teen Brain” (Chapter 15). Understanding the teen brain allows you to know how to have the kind of “cold communication” that not only enables you to remain radically calm, but allows teens to think through problems at arrive at better decisions.
• “Reframing Youth Who Have Endured Trauma and Marginalization” (Chapter 38). Some youth who have had the hardest lives have earned the right to be initially suspicious and reactive. However, they also possess particularly high levels of loyalty and compassion. We bring out the best in youth when they first feel safe with us. Sometimes that means enduring testing and suspicion while maintaining radical calmness and unconditional positive regard.

Working with Youth to Maintain and Restore Calm

• “Supporting Youth to Build Their Self-regulation Skills” (Chapter 39). This chapter prepares you to consider how to support young people to build self-regulation skills. It is critical to understand that a lack of self-regulation is not a character flaw. Self-regulation has to be taught and modelled, and opportunities for practice have to be offered.
• “Mindfulness Practice for Resilience and Managing Stress and Pain” (Chapter 51). Mindfulness has been demonstrated to restore balance and a sense of control. It is about learning to live in the present while avoiding dwelling on the past or worrying about the future.
• “Finding Resilience in Sports and Physically Active Recreation” (Chapter 60). Sports and physically active recreation are key strategies to manage stress. If you help young people not only experience but understand this, it could have lifelong health and wellness implications. “Work it out” is a good strategy to restore calm focus.
• “De-escalation and Crisis Management When a Youth Is Acting Out” (Chapter 34). This chapter offers concrete strategies both to anticipate escalation and to calm situations as they escalate.
• “Restorative Practices: Addressing Problems by Using Strength-Based Rather Than Punitive Strategies” (Chapter 45). We restore control to people when we include—rather than exclude—them in healing processes. As young people act out, a team can choose to engage in restorative processes that can strengthen the team because it has moved past conflict.
• “Body Language” (Chapter 30). We can calm or trigger others with subtle signals sent through our bodies. People skilled in the use of body language can better engage and empower people, as well as diffuse tension. Our body language can convey safety versus fear, and trust versus mistrust. Therefore, learning how to use our own body signals can make a difference to our ability to help others self-regulate.

Supporting Parents to More Effectively Discipline Their Children

• “Promoting Balanced Parenting: Warmth, Clear Boundaries, and Effective Monitoring” (Chapter 54). This chapter covers how parents can help their children learn self-control. In fact, decades of research help us to understand that the right balance of love, warmth, and clear rules generate the best academic, behavioral, and emotional outcomes. We can guide parents to important resources. In addition, because many of us serve as surrogate parents, this knowledge may help you achieve that balance of warmth, flexibility, and rules that is optimal to develop youth.
• The Center for Parent and Teen Communication (https://parentandteen.com): The Center’s website is rooted in balanced parenting and offers specific skill-sets to guide parents how to get there. This includes strategies to appropriately discipline young people.

In ideal circumstances, a coach is one member of a network of close and caring adults that surrounds a young person. In some scenarios, a coach may even spend more time with a young person than the young person’s parents. In others, a young person may have unhealthy relationships at home. This means that a coach can become a trusted adult, if not the most trusted adult, in that young person’s life.

In this role, coaches have the opportunity to bear witness to a young person’s growth and development. They may also be the first to recognize when a young person is in trouble, and could potentially be the best-positioned to intervene.

In this section, we have assembled chapters that discuss how to recognize when a young person is in trouble and, perhaps more important, important themes that can guide you in developing an appropriate supportive response.

We strongly suggest that you review Chapter 24 “Boundaries” as well as Chapter 50 “Stress Management and Coping”. Many of the additional chapters can be thought of as reference chapters, which you and your team can review based on your interest, or when you know or suspect that a young person is struggling with one of these issues (e.g., grief, divorce) or living through unusual circumstances (e.g., engagement with juvenile justice or being in the foster care system).

Explanations are offered below only for those chapters whose titles are not self-explanatory.

• “Boundaries” (Chapter 24). We serve best when we have clear boundaries. In fact, boundaries do not divide us, they allow us to safely draw closer. This chapter covers many essential boundary issues including avoiding the rescue fantasy and instead giving as much control as possible to youth.
• “Stress Management and Coping: Powerful Strategies to Take Control of One’s Life” (Chapter 50). Quick easy fixes to cope with uncomfortable feelings or experiences are also destructive. People can take control over their lives when equipped with a repertoire of positive coping strategies. Although you are likely not a counselor, these stress-management strategies can be taught and supported by any adult in young lives.
• The Center for Parent and Teen Communication Stress Management Plan (https://parentandteen.com/teen-stress-management-plan): This free interactive plan allows young people to design their own stress-management strategies. It does not substitute for professional support, but allows young people to think through strategies that are positive and healthful rather than risky quick fixes.
• “Depression” (Chapter 62).
• “Anxiety” (Chapter 63).
• “Somatic Symptoms and Related Disorders” (Chapter 64).
• “Grief” (Chapter 65).
• “Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in Adolescents” (Chapter 66).
• “Learning Differences” (Chapter 67).
• “Perfectionism” (Chapter 68). Perfectionism can be highly destructive both for highly academic and athletic youth. It takes away the joy of play and undermines thriving. Perfectionists can also work very hard to pretend they no longer care.
• “Eating Disorders” (Chapter 69).
• “Adolescents and Substance Use” (Chapter 70).
• “Adolescents and Opioid Use” (Chapter 71).
• “Teen Pregnancy and Parenting” (Chapter 72).
• “Helping Teens Cope With Divorce” (Chapter 75).
• “Bullying” (Chapter 76).
• “Unhealthy Relationships” (Chapter 77).
• “Emotional, Physical, and Sexual Abuse” (Chapter 78).
• “Youth Violence” (Chapter 79).
• “Supporting Youth in Foster Care to Engage in Services and Supports” (Chapter 86).
• “Working With Youth Involved With Juvenile Justice” (Chapter 87).

There are times when young people need support and don’t realize it, wish for support but don’t know that it is available, or feel too ashamed to ask for support or to accept it.

A wise and caring adult can make all the difference.

When young people hear adults say, “This is the help you need!” they are likely to receive the message that they are somehow broken, associating the idea of help with feelings of shame and rejection. The good news is, adults can shift from a message of “This is what you need” to one that says “This is the support that you deserve, and it can empower you to become your best self.” The way in which this shift is communicated can take a variety of forms.

In this section, we offer three chapters that will help you to learn, practice, and strengthen strategies that you can use to make this shift and successfully guide people to the resources that can help them to a healthier and stronger future.

• “Reaching Treatment: An Overview of Mental Health Treatment” (Chapter 61). This chapter will familiarize you with key types of therapy that your youth may be accessing. It will enable you to better support their healing process. It also offers you strength-based strategies to guide youth toward appropriate mental-health services.
• “Focusing and Building on Existing Strengths: A Strategy to Overcome Risks and to Prepare Adolescents to Be Their Best Selves” (Chapter 44). This chapter was also presented as a core communication chapter, but it is repeated here because the best way of supporting a person to take action to solve a problem, or address emotional discomfort or a behavioral challenge, is to frame it amidst their existing sea of strengths. Coaches are uniquely positioned to see both strengths and challenges in young people’s lives.
• “Helping Youth Overcome Shame and Stigma (and Doing Our Best to Not Be a Part of the Problem)” (Chapter 49). Our youth have been through enough. We need settings that are genuinely nonjudgmental and understand that we must see people as they deserve to be seen, not through the lens of the behaviors they may have needed to display or the labels they may have received. This chapter also offers strength-based strategies to guide youth toward appropriate mental-health services.
• The Center for Parent and Teen Communication “Preparing Teens to Seek Professional Help” (https://parentandteen.com/seek-professional-help/): This is a free resource that you can suggest parents use. It will help them find the right language to support their children toward appropriate professional guidance. Having this at your disposal prepares you to be a trusted bridge between youth in need and parents who can get them to the next steps.