Today, adolescence begins earlier than ever before, and ends even later. A period of doubt, of contradiction, of dispute, it often troubles parents, who don’t always know what to do, to say, or how. It is to them that this guide is dedicated. How can parents best accompany their children on this tumultuous journey to adulthood ? How can they be present without being invasive ? How should parents cope with adolescent mood swings, provocations, and silences ? How can parents maintain dialogue, and keep lines of communication open ?
This book does not propose a series of educational recipes, but is rather a collection of reflections, clinical vignettes, and pieces of advice on how to better understand, to know how to listen, to find the right distance, and to be the sort of help that an adolescent really needs.
Alain Braconnier is a psychoanalyst and director of the Association of Mental Health in the 12th Paris arrondissement.