Compass

Professionals, teachers and parents know that adolescence can transform a once delightful girl into a brooding and disengaged stranger. Teen girls seem especially vulnerable to the challenges of modern adolescence with increasing rates of eating disorders, self-harm, mental health issues and aggression.

Modern teen culture provides a multitude of challenges for girls to negotiate and they can have a more devastating effect on them than ever before. Issues such as sexting, substance use, cyber-bullying and girl violence are complex and increasingly commonplace. Recent data shows violence by girls in schools has soared by 70 per cent in the past five years whilst the male level of violence has remained largely unchanged.

How do we assist teen girls to successfully navigate school, social life and family with respect, self-control and responsibility? How do you make sure they learn the ′right′ lessons and avoid the dangers of modern adolescence? Professionals working with teen girls and their families require a fresh understanding their culture; to get beyond the attitude and secrecy, and be invited to connect with a teen (and her real story). Thus changing the outcome of teaching and counselling them successfully.

Michelle unpacks the good, the bad and the ugly associated with working with teen girls while exploring practical strategies that include:

Teenage girls - what is normal nowadays? And how to identify those ‘at risk’.

• Introducing the key concepts of the “Inside Story”, the “She Should Theory” and the Three Stages of Development.
• Exploring the issues that impact: family, bullying, mental health, sexuality, materialism, technology and body image.
• Engaging teens effectively and with credibility: labels that teen girls wear, their typical behaviour, what drives these labels and how best to respond to them
• Teenager’s support networks: what are they, where do they fit and how to harness them effectively.

Michelle worked as a teacher for many years before establishing Youth Excel, a charity devoted to working with teenagers to reach their full potential.  As a teen expert and author of “What Teenage Girls Don’t Tell Their Parents” she works at the cutting edge of teen culture assisting hundreds of teens and their families. Michelle’s unique way of captivating her audience takes them into the inner workings of teenage girls’ minds and lives, using video footage and case studies from her mentoring program. Her presentations are sometimes shocking yet practical and relevant to all professionals working with teenage girls no matter what the setting.

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