Integrating Narrative Therapy Within Rehabilitative Programming for Incarcerated Adolescents

The number of adolescents being jailed or otherwise involved in the juvenile justice system has increased within the United States during the past 2 decades (Gultekin & Giiltekin, 2012). Snyder and Sickmund (2006) found that over 50% of detained youth are rearrested after release and nearly 60% with a previous offense return to juvenile court before age 18. Predictive factors associated with juvenile criminal offending include ongoing poverty, health care disparities, reduced educational opportunities, emotional neglect, and chronic abuse (Sanborn, 2011). Furthermore, some have reported that more than 50% percent of young people in the juvenile justice system have at least one mental health disorder (Snyder & Sickmund, 2006) and that, among these youth, the correctional setting may be the first place they are evaluated and diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder (Sanborn, 2011). Because of the considerable amount of youth whose development intersects with the juvenile justice system and the social challenges experienced thereafter, further evaluation of rehabilitative approaches for this population is necessary. There is compelling evidence indicating that a great number of young people may benefit from mental health services (Costello, Mustillo, Erkanli, Keeler, & Angold, 2003). Despite the growing population of youth and adolescents, a vast number of youth with mental health needs go unrecognized and underserved by mental health and school professionals (Burke, Loeber, Lahey, & Rathouz, 2005). This is apparent when considering the high number of adolescents who engage in antisocial behaviors or who experience the symptoms of depression, which may include suicidal ideations. Many of these youth may not survive into adulthood or do so with limited psychosocial competency or functioning. As a result, incidence of youth violence has heightened along with awareness of mental health problems as an important issue among youth (Burke et al., 2005; Nock, Kazdin, Hiripi, & Kessler, 2007). Researchers have identified a number of psychological constructs that represent the mental health experiences of youth, including somatization, obsession-compulsion, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, hostility, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation, and psychoticism (Chew, Osseck, Raygor, Eldridge-Houser, & Cox, 2010; Derogatis, 1993). Within the juvenile justice system, clinically relevant psychological symptoms may be minimally recognized as warranting special attention or intervention. Although previous researchers have focused on the implementation of counseling techniques to help youth overcome mental health issues, such as depression, anxiety, and behavioral problems (Jaser, Holl, Jefferson, & Grey, 2009), studies remain scarce on the effectiveness of counseling interventions, particularly the use of narrative therapy, to help youth overcome mental health issues while incarcerated at a juvenile boot camp facility. Fundamental Principles of Narrative Therapy Narrative therapy is based on the proposition that the way people experience themselves and their situation is constructed through culturally mediated social interactions (Shapiro & Ross, 2002). Through descriptions of experiences, individuals within a culture reveal messages about the meaning of important concepts related to identity, race, class, and health (Shapiro & Ross, 2002). Narrative therapy (White, 2007) was developed to help clients define their problem, map the effects of the problem within their context, evaluate the psychological and social effects of the problem, and identify outcomes that stimulate the reauthoring of client's experiences. Reauthoring conversations support clients' descriptions of their life stories in a way that includes the neglected, but potentially significant, experiences that may have been overlooked within their dominant story lines (Shapiro & Ross, 2002). These events and experiences are considered unique outcomes and exceptions to problematic activities that do not characterize their functioning. …