Unlocking Healthy Conversations: Strategies for Talking with Teens About Mental Health
Aired May 22, 2024
Watch Below
Getting teens to talk about what’s going on in their lives can be a difficult task. You may be met with slamming doors, one-word answers, or even silence. Instead of chalking this up to normal teen moodiness and walking away, parents and caring adults need to keep lines of communication open.
In Part Two of our series on effective communication, Rebekah Gibbons, LICSW, will take participants through four common scenarios. In each scenario, she will teach parents and caring adults how to use communication strategies that work. You will learn how to validate your teen’s feelings and discuss sensitive topics.
By improving communication skills, parents and caring adults can better connect with teenagers and support their mental health needs.
Did you miss our first webinar on talking with teens? Watch it today.
This program is supported by
George Harrington Trust
Middlesex Savings Charitable Foundation
Massachusetts Department of Public Health Suicide Prevention Program
Bennett Family Foundation
Thomas Anthony Pappas Charitable Foundation
Rebecca Pomroy Foundation
Presenters
Rebekah Gibbons, LICSW
Rebekah Gibbons, LICSW is a certified trauma therapist, currently serving individuals aged 15 and up. Her clinical specialities include, trauma, attachment, and adolescent mental health and development. She has extensive experience with adolescents, families, and adults, having worked in community mental health as an outpatient clinician and as an in-home family therapist, as well as a clinician and clinical director at a residential group home for adolescents ages 12-19. Rebekah is also an Associate Professor of Practice and leader of the trauma certificate at the Simmons School of Social Work.
Valerie Cordero, PhD, Moderator
Valerie Cordero, PhD, Co-Executive Director, joined the FFDA staff in 2010. Before assuming her role as Co-Executive Director primarily responsible for fundraising and marketing, she held positions in programs and development. Now based in FFDA’s Nashville office, Valerie utilizes her personal knowledge of how mood disorders affect families in dialogues with donors, partners, and the general public. Valerie has lent her voice to national discussions of mood disorders and been featured on major media outlets such as Reader’s Digest, Better Homes & Gardens, and New York Magazine’s vertical The Cut. She received her BA from Spelman College and earned her Masters and PhD in Ethnomusicology from the University of California at Los Angeles.
