The Democratic Youth Engagement Model (DYE)

The model revolves around the practice of...

– Collaborating with youth

– Honoring the agency of youth

– Gaining consent from youth

– Centering adults as the models for youth

– Holding the relationship paramount between adult and youth

The DYE Model is applicable where adults interact with youth, including...

– Youth workers

– Mental health professionals

– Chemical health professionals

– Teachers

– Educational assistants

– Skills workers

– Social workers

– Adoption workers

– Camp counselors

– Athletic coaches

– Artistic leaders

– Parents

Participants will:

A. Learn the values, and virtue, of democratically engaging with youth

B. Explore creative collaboration approaches with youth

C. Strengthen capacity to model healthy adult behavior for youth

Current findings of child/adolescent brain development; trauma-informed care; motivational

interviewing questions; Non-Violent Communication processes; practical ways of navigating

the various adult professionals in the life of a youth; collaborative parenting approaches will be

covered.

Significant time will be spent discussing how to democratically engage with youth and their parents in family therapy contexts.

3 CE’s -MFT Pending

Adam Arnold, MA, LMFT, LADC is a licensed psychotherapist with Enliven Psychotherapy. He is the developer of The Democratic Youth Engagement (DYE) Model, the values and style through which he employs his clinical work. Adam works clinically with adolescents and children (ages 5-18), and also with survivors of spiritual abuse (5 and older).

Adam has experience developing relationships with adolescents and children of varying cultures, as well as adolescents and children of varying abilities. He has worked professionally in school settings, summer camps, after school programs, arts organizations, athletic settings, day treatment centers, correctional facilities, and residential treatment centers. For over ten years Adam combined his passions for healing and the arts, serving as Founder and Artistic Director of blank slate theatre, a personal growth-oriented theatre for adolescents in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

While there, he collaborated with culturally and ability diverse adolescents to produce over two dozen theatre pieces centering on themes of mental health and social change, including the award-winning Disordered [thy name is teenager], and Bottom, a play on child sex trafficking. Adam also was proud to serve as chair of the “Safe Schools, Safe Students Conference,” which sought to address mental health issues in schools, innovate family involvement with schools, soothe peer aggression (bullying), and eliminate school shootings.