Our materials help counselors and clients throughout the adolescent version of The Seven Challenges program — from training and implementation to counseling sessions and beyond.
During group and individual sessions, The Seven Challenges Book of Readings helps young people gain ideas and inspiration for looking at their own lives. The book is based on the experiences of young people who have successfully overcome alcohol and other drug problems. It’s available in English and Spanish.
The Seven Challenges journals are a valuable tool for helping clients reflect on their lives and drug use and supporting them in their decision-making and change process. Each client works through the set of journals, one at a time, by writing in the journal and giving it to their counselor to respond and make comments. Each journal will pass back and forth between the client and their counselor several times during the supportive journaling process. This gives clients a chance to open up and reflect on their lives without the pressure of an immediate face-to-face audience. The journals use a combination of short answers, lists, and checkboxes to keep it simple, even for clients who struggle with focusing, reading, and writing. The adolescent journals are available in English and Spanish.
For each room where sessions are facilitated, there are two full-sized color posters that counselors use to help frame the program and process. One poster is called “Challenging Yourself” and lists the seven challenges for easy reference during sessions. The other poster is called “Working Sessions” and serves as a visual aid for helping clients learn what it means to "work" in counseling sessions.
Each counselor providing the adolescent program will read The Seven Challenges Manual before their organization's Initial Training. The manual includes information about counseling approaches for each of the challenges, instructions for implementing the program, strategies for introducing the program and materials, guidelines for responding to journals, and ideas about how to effectively monitor and supervise the program. Beyond implementation, counselors often refer back to the manual as needed.
Each counselor who will be using The Seven Challenges watches the training video, where the program’s author and developer shares a brief history, gives an overview of how the program works, and introduces a few of the counseling skills central to The Seven Challenges. Sections of the video can also be used to give parents, referral sources, court personnel, and other community stakeholders an overview of the program.
The Seven Challenges Activity Book includes a wide array of counseling activities that help clients examine and consider changing their drug use behavior, while also helping them overcome situational and psychological problems. Counselors find an appropriate activity to support each session, and each activity contains instructions for preparation, facilitation, suggested discussion topics, and relevant readings from The Book of Readings. The book also has helpful information about skillfully leading activities, applying Seven Challenges counseling skills, and adapting group activities for individual work.