Woodbury Reports, Inc.
Bonners Ferry, Idaho

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Caring Confrontation

"Caring Confrontation is what John Dewey Academy staff sees as direct and honest communication between staff and students as a way to build up their strengths, rather than the popular notion of confrontation being some kind of in-your-face tearing down," said Ken Steiner Ph.D., Head of School, and Lisa Sinsheimer MD, Parent Liaison and Admissions Coordinator, with John Dewey Academy, a Therapeutic Boarding School in Great Barrington Massachusetts, on Lon Woodbury's Internet Talk Radio Show "Parent Choices for Struggling Teens" on September 19th on LATalkRadio.

"This manner of communication with the students avoids authoritarian control", said Steiner and Sinsheimer, "and is based on Choice Theory and teaching the students that choosing self respect is better than immediate gratification, and that belonging to a community through caring for others is much of what makes life worthwhile."

"What we have developed is a common sense educational model that confronts the students' avoidance and escape strategies," Steiner and Sinsheimer pointed out, "while avoiding common professional models such as the medical model or behavior modification.

Parents sometimes come to the school fearing their child is too fragile for honest confrontation," concluded Steiner and Sinsheimer, "but when they realize this approach is caring and designed to build the positive qualities of their child up rather than being adversarial, they are comfortable stepping back from trying to over-protect their child and allow the healing to occur."

Listen to the full radio show on Caring Confrontation.

Lon Woodbury, MA, IECA, CEP, is the owner/founder of Woodbury Reports Inc. and www.strugglingteens.com . He has worked with families and struggling teens since 1984, and is the Host of Parent Choices for Struggling Teens on LATalkRadio Mondays at 12:00 Noon, Pacific Time.