Family Therapy with Suicidal Adolescents

288 Pages·2008·2.19 MB·English

by  Anthony P. Jurich

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New York London
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Routledge Routledge
Taylor & Francis Group Taylor & Francis Group
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New York, NY 10016 Milton Park, Abingdon
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© 2008 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
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International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-415-96086-1 (Hardcover)
No part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced, transmitted, or utilized in any form by any electronic,
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used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Jurich, Anthony P.
Family therapy with suicidal adolescents / Anthony P. Jurich.
p. ; cm.
ISBN-13: 978-0-415-96086-1 (alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-415-96086-X (alk. paper)
1. Teenagers--Suicidal behavior--Treatment. 2. Adolescent psychotherapy. 3. Family
psychotherapy. I. Title.
[DNLM: 1. Suicide. 2. Adolescent. 3. Family Therapy--methods. WM 165 J95f
2007]
RJ506.S9J87 2007
616.89’140835--dc22 2007007152
Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at
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To Olivia. You are my strength in the hard times and my joy
in the good times.
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FOREWORD
Working with suicidal adolescents is the bane of most therapists. Not
only are therapists highly intimidated by these unpredictable and dif-
fi cult to read challenging youth but mental health professionals oft en try
and avoid having to work with them at all costs. Th e thought of the big
liability issues and potential malpractice suits, and possibly having to
fi eld crisis calls late at night or during the wee hours of the early morn-
ing, instill fear in the minds of most therapists. However, there is one
highly seasoned and compassionate therapist that dares to enter and
has worked therapeutic wonders in the unpredictable world of suicidal
adolescents and their families, and his name is Anthony P. Jurich. Aft er
many years of encouragement and nudging to put in print his clinical
wisdom and artistry, Jurich has provided the mental health and family
therapy fi elds with a gift , Family Th erapy with Suicidal Adolescents.
To my knowledge, Family Th erapy with Suicidal Adolescents is the
fi rst family therapy handbook devoted entirely to the family treatment
of suicidal adolescents. Jurich provides us with a comprehensive grand
tour of the research on suicidal adolescents, including his cutting edge
and scholarly clinical research. In a clear and practitioner-friendly way,
he presents in this well-written book his advanced strategic family ther-
apy approach that targets interventions at the adolescent, family, peer
group, and larger systems levels. His book is fi lled with challenging case
examples which nicely illustrate his therapeutic approach in action,
some of which read like on the edge of your seat suspense mysteries.
What comes out the most from reading Jurich’s case examples, is his
high level of compassion, empathy, and commitment that he provides
to these troubled youth and their overwhelmed parents. Jurich shows
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x • Foreword
us that therapeutic fl exibility, humor, being able to thrive in chaos, how
not to get therapeutically paralyzed by adolescents’ self-destructive ten-
dencies, and improvise at any given moment is a must in working with
these adolescents and their families. Finally, Jurich clearly drives home
the message that despite the intimidating nature of adolescents’ sui-
cidal thoughts or previous attempts to take their lives, we as clinicians
need to not lose sight of and utilize their multitude of strengths and
resources to empower and co-create with them and their families more
preferred workable realities.
Matthew D. Selekman, MSW
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PREFACE
As he stood at the threshold of the fulfi llment of his quest, from the
depths below there arose a beast, terrible to behold, who blocked
his path and threatened his life. He drew his sword from his belt
and prepared to commence battle. Th e stakes were life or death.
Although the above paragraph is not connected to any specifi c story
or legend, the scene is familiar to anyone who has read a classic heroic
tale. From Th e Odyssey to the Lord of the Rings to Star Wars to Spider-
man, the hero has had to overcome some beast to accomplish his or
her quest. Th e battle is epic in proportion and the price of failure is
death. Th is is not only a tale which appears in books and movies but is
also a story which gets acted out daily by suicidal adolescents. Th e beast
is not external, although there are external manifestations of its pres-
ence in the form of abusive parents or harshly critical peers. Th e beast
is internal to the adolescent. It is all of the monsters and demons that
can be summoned by the heart and mind to well up inside of the child
journeying through the adolescent years.
Th erapy with suicidal adolescents embodies that epic struggle with
the beast within. Th e epic hero may face the beast alone in battle. How-
ever, he or she most oft en has the help of the gods or the magic of some
special weapon. Th e therapist is one of the gods from whom he or she
seeks help. I would pose that family therapy enlists the aid of other
gods who are powerful in the adolescent’s life—his or her family. As
good as the therapist may be in helping the young hero with his or her
fi ght against the beast, the therapist cannot duplicate the power of the
family, summoned to assist and validate the hero who is their child or
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