| Whole families | Parent group | Teen group |
Session 1 | Introduction/ice-breakers; discussion of normal teen behavior and reasons for misbehavior. | Venting, building hope and strengthening commitment to treatment. | Venting, building hope, and brainstorming desired changes for own and parents’ behavior. |
Session 2 | Identification of how buttons get pushed to escalate conflict and facilitation of nurturing interactions between parents and teens. | Development of a plan utilizing button busters to prevent and soften coercive interactions. | Development of a plan utilizing button busters to prevent and soften coercive interactions. |
Session 3 | Education to develop family agreements; reframe problems within a developmental framework; increase families’ support for each other within the group. | Identification of a problem and operationalize it into a rule. | Identify acceptable rewards and consequences. |
Session 4 | Teens deliver “positive parent reports” designed to soften coercive interactions and increase nurturance. Educate about guilt and other barriers that interfere with delivery of consequences on a consistent basis. | Incorporate teens’ rewards and consequences into family agreement and exchange of contact information between parents to increase informal support outside of group. | Create a positive parent report and discussion cards on developmentally appropriate topics. |
Session 5 | None. | Continue to work on family agreements and identify a plan “B” of consequences that can be used if the teen decides to not follow the family agreement. | Learn perspective taking skills to develop empathy and discuss readiness to make changes in their families to utilize button busters and the family agreement. |
Session 6 | Staff members (and lead parent volunteers) facilitate a discussion with each family to negotiate their family agreement while the volunteers and group members provide advice, brainstorming, and support. | Prepare for family agreement negotiations with role plays using button busters and listening skills. Write a positive teen report to be delivered in next session. | Discussion on forgiveness, identify individuals who have betrayed trust, and prepare for family agreement negotiations. |
Session 7 | Learn about developmentally appropriate nurturing strategies and soften parent teen interactions with positive teen reports. | None. | None. |