Brief Intervention for Substance Using Adolescents

 Facilitated by Ira Sachnoff

Workshop Description

The goal of this one day training is to build skills of counselors working with adolescents. Brief Intervention is a short-term counseling intervention that consists of 2 to 4 sessions aimed at adolescents who use alcohol and/or other drugs. This training approach uses motivational interviewing, cognitive behavior therapy and the stages of change model to meet the needs of adolescents. 

Learning Objectives:

•   Examining the counselor’s attitudes and relationship with teens

•   Identifying strategies that would support an adolescent driven plan to make decisions they see as   beneficial

•   Increasing knowledge about drug and alcohol use among teens

•   Utilizing Motivational Interviewing to empower rather than

enforce

About the Presenter  

Ira Sachnoff was the Director for the San Francisco Peer Resource Programs from

1980-1996. In this capacity Ira was responsible for the supervision and training of 25

Peer Resource Program Coordinators who trained over 1,000 youth who then served

over 20, 000 youth in The San Francisco Unified School District.

Currently, Ira is the High School Alcohol & Tobacco Program Consultant for the San

Francisco Unified School District and is also a consultant for the Alameda County Office

of Education and the Contra Costa County Office of Education. Ira also has his own

consulting company Peer Resource Training and Consulting where he has in the last

five years trained over 3,000 tobacco youth peer educators and over 500 adults in the

art of setting up Comprehensive Tobacco Prevention and Cessation programs for youth.

Ira has also trained over 2,000 adults in the last 20 years in the art of setting up

successful Peer Resource/Helping Programs.