Please meet Jason*. He loves sports. As I write, I can picture him telling me blow-by-blow how he made the winning shot in his last basketball game. This was an experience I had with Jason many times. Jason is a talented skateboarder and basketball player, and he enjoys football and soccer, too. His favorite video…
A few years ago, I worked with a young, Black, female adolescent, named Candice*, and her mother. Candice and her family had moved from an urban city in North Jersey to a suburban community in Central Jersey. Candice’s mother was recently divorced with three children: Candice, who was 13 years old; her eight-year-old sister; and her three-year-old brother. Candice was…
As a licensed clinical social worker who works with adolescents I utilize a variety of different approaches and methods to engage them, explore ideas, discuss their experiences and struggles, and process their pain, loss and heartache. One of the methods I utilize is cinematherapy. Cinematherapy is a creative way to engage adolescents, create dialogue about life…
Advocacy and opposition in adolescence can be as beautiful as the branches of this bonsai tree. Like the bonsai tree, an adolescent develops and goes through changes within the context of family and community. Just as each leaf and branch is carefully attended to and shaped, so are the abilities and talents of the adolescent attended to and…
In my last post, “Opposition as Advocacy,” I raised the question, “if opposition in itself is not a problem, could it be a means to a desired outcome?” I say, yes! I made the claim, “To make a difference, bring about a change, or move forward sometimes requires opposition or a fight.” I support my claim of opposition as advocacy, especially…
In my last post—“Why not opposition in adolescence—who really has a problem with it?”—I discussed the definition of opposition and its synonyms, related words, and near antonyms, all of which brought to my mind words like struggle, conflict, liberation, and power. These words came to mind because I imagined the act of opposing something or someone, how…
In my welcome post, I painted a picture of the need to see oppositionality in adolescence as a normal part of development. Oppositionality is one of the ways in which adolescents come into their own. It aids them in developing a separate sense of self, purpose, and identity, as well as valuing connections and interdependence, and it…
WELCOME TO A NEW TAKE ON OPPOSITION! A website dedicated to changing the conversation on opposition in adolescence. Oppositionality in adolescence has become synonymous with oppositional defiant disorder. Caregivers, authority figures, and institutions of authority in our society show little to no tolerance for an adolescent who opposes existing norms, rules, expectations, and the status quo…
A New Take on Adolescent Opposition 