Karen Bluth: The Self-Compassionate Teen: Mindfulness and Compassion Skills to Conquer Your Critical Inner Voice

Excerpt

Adolescence is a developmental stage filled with stress and pressure. These stressors entail school, post-graduation plans, friends, dating, and family expectations. The teen is forging their identity, moving towards adulthood, and for many this movement takes its toll. Recent studies, based on the National Survey of Children’s Health data, estimate that 10–12% of teens are afflicted with anxiety, and 6–8% meet the criteria for depression (Ghandour et al. 2019; Zhu et al. 2019). For many teens, maintaining equilibrium is a challenge. This accounts for the plentitude of risk behaviors (e.g., substance abuse, unprotected sex, self-injurious behavior) in the adolescent years (Demidenko et al. 2019; Fradkin 2020a; Maslowsky et al. 2019; Wang et al. 2019). Various treatment approaches (cognitive behavioral therapy, psychotropic medication, group approach, art therapy) address psychosocial problems among teens. As a therapist, author Karen Bluth employs mindfulness and self-compassion. Studies confirm the effectiveness of this approach, in its reduction of stress, anxiety, and depression (Borquist-Conlon et al. 2019; Calvete et al. 2020; Puolakanaho et al. 2019; Tumminia et al. 2020); as well as its bolstering of resilience and self-worth (Fradkin 2017a; Mazaheri et al. 2020; Wu et al. 2019). …