ABSTRACT
Adolescents with problems pose a difficult challenge to parents and therapists alike. Help must be offered in a manner that responds to the adolescent's almost childlike need for nurturance as well as his or her developing sense of competence and independence. If such a balance is not achieved, parents and therapists can find themselves with a contrary adolescent — one who is sullen and withdrawn, challenging and disruptive, or both. The technique presented here uses the one-way mirror as a symbolic boundary between childhood and adulthood, and allows therapists and parents to help the adolescent move more easily between the two worlds.
