Adirondack Leadership Expeditions
Saranac Lake, NY

Thomas Miller, LCSW and Clinical Director for Adirondack Leadership Expeditions, a character-development wilderness program for struggling teens, will present a training seminar on oppositional defiance at NATSAP's Northeast Regional Conference, September 24-25, 2009 in Kennebunkport, Maine.

The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychology estimates that up to 16 percent of all school-age children and adolescents have ODD. Miller's presentation, titled "Working with Oppositional Defiant Youth," will seek to fill in the gap in literature concerning how best to address oppositional defiant behavioral patterns from a clinical perspective. The session will train professionals how to assist students with problem-solving strategies and help decrease the negativity that surrounds their attention-seeking behavior. In addition, Miller will suggest ways to offer new alternatives to old, maladaptive behavioral patterns.

"Oppositional defiant behaviors can be part of normal development," says Miller. "We expect a modicum of oppositional defiant behaviors to be exhibited once children hit their teenage years and transition into early adolescence. However, openly uncooperative and hostile behavior becomes a serious concern when it is so incessant and fierce that it stands out when compared with other children of the same age and developmental level, and when it affects the teen's social, family and academic life."

Attendees of the training session will learn how to provide social skills coaching to increase a student's flexibility and augment the student's frustration tolerance amongst their peers and keys to overcoming oppositional defiant behaviors.

Adirondack Leadership Expeditions (ALE) specializes in helping teen's ages 13-17 who are exhibiting oppositional defiant behavior as well as entitlement issues, manipulation, low self-esteem, substance use, failure in school or negative peer association. The program promotes personal growth through a focus on insight-oriented experiences. ALE's forested, mountainous setting removes urban distractions and simplifies options to help students gain insight into their core values and accept responsibility for their choices.

For more information, visit www.adirondackleadership.com.

Adirondack Leadership Expeditions is a program of Aspen Education Group, the nation's leading provider of therapeutic education programs for struggling or underachieving young people. Aspen's services range from short-term intervention programs to residential treatment, and include a variety of therapeutic settings such as boarding schools, outdoor behavioral health programs and special needs summer camps, allowing professionals and families the opportunity to choose the best setting to meet a student's unique academic and emotional needs. Aspen is a member of CRC Health Group, the nation's largest chemical dependency and related behavioral health organization. For over two decades, CRC Health has been achieving successful outcomes for individuals and families.

For more information, visit www.crchealth.com.