The Adolescent Mirror

Understanding Identity, Resistance and Relationship in the In Between Space

A clinically informed and experiential half day training for professionals working with young people up to age 25

Date: Friday, 13 November 2026
Time: 10.00 am to 1.00 pm
Format: Online through Zoom
Included: Digital workbook companion and three hour CPD certificate
Investment: €80    

Inc

Workshop Description

Adolescence and emerging adulthood are periods of significant developmental movement. Young people are negotiating autonomy, identity, belonging and their changing relationship with the adults around them.

These processes do not remain inside the young person. They enter the therapeutic, educational and professional relationship, often through resistance, silence, withdrawal, testing, compliance or moments of sudden honesty.

Adolescents can also become mirrors for the adults working with them. They may stir our own histories, anxieties, expectations, need for control or discomfort with uncertainty. Without sufficient awareness, professionals can begin responding to what is being evoked in them rather than remaining curious about what the young person may be communicating.

The Adolescent Mirror offers an opportunity to look beneath behaviour and consider the emotional, relational, developmental and contextual processes shaping engagement with adolescents and emerging adults.

Rather than approaching resistance as something to overcome, this workshop explores how silence, withdrawal, testing and apparent disengagement may function as protection, communication or an attempt to maintain agency.

We will also examine the practitioner’s response when the work feels uncertain or stuck, including the pull to Control, Coast, Collapse or Collude.

Through clinical teaching, guided inquiry, creative and visual exploration and facilitated discussion, participants will deepen their understanding of what unfolds within these relationships and develop greater confidence in meeting complexity with curiosity, clarity and steady relational boundaries.

During the Workshop, We Will Explore

• How identity and autonomy develop through relationship and context.

• How adolescents and emerging adults can become targets for adult projection, anxiety and expectation.

• The possible meaning beneath resistance, silence, withdrawal, testing and compliance.

• How neurodivergence and different ways of processing can shape communication and engagement.

• The influence of power, pace and professional expectations on the relationship.

• The practitioner’s pull to Control, Coast, Collapse or Collude when the work becomes uncertain.

• How trust can be supported through presence, curiosity, clarity and consistent relational boundaries.

Who This Training Is For

This training is for professionals who want to deepen their clinical and relational understanding of work with adolescents and emerging adults.

It may be particularly relevant for counsellors, psychotherapists, youth practitioners, mentors, educators, supervisors and other professionals supporting young people up to age 25.

Workshop Approach

The workshop will include clinical teaching, individual inquiry, creative and visual exercises and facilitated group discussion.

Participants will be invited to consider their own responses to adolescent resistance, uncertainty and difference, while developing a deeper understanding of what may be taking place beneath the surface.

Participants will receive a digital workbook companion to support the exercises, capture their learning and continue their professional inquiry after the workshop.

This is a live and participatory workshop. It will not be recorded. 

Preparation

Please bring:

• A notebook or journal.

• Some colours, such as pens, markers or crayons, for the creative exercises.

• A clinical or professional experience that has left you feeling uncertain, challenged or stuck. Please ensure that all identifying information is removed.

No artistic ability is required.

About the Facilitator

Michelle Fahy, MIACP, MEAIP

Adult and Child/Adolescent Psychotherapist | Clinical Supervisor | Coach and Mentor | Trainer and Group Facilitator

I am an accredited adult and child/adolescent psychotherapist, clinical supervisor, coach, trainer and group facilitator with over 30 years of professional experience across education, therapeutic practice and professional development.

My background was a secondary school teacher and hold an MA in Child and Adolescent Creative Psychotherapy. This combination of educational experience and clinical training has shaped my particular interest in adolescence, emerging adulthood and what young people can evoke in the adults and systems around them.

My work is relational, creative, trauma informed, neurodivergent affirming and attentive to identity, power and difference. I support professionals to move beyond techniques and develop the confidence, clarity and clinical judgement needed to remain present when work becomes complex or uncertain.

Through Dynamic Wellbeing, I provide clinical supervision, psychotherapeutic coaching, professional training and facilitated group programmes.

Website: www.dynamicwellbeing.ie
Email: michelle@dynamicwellbeing.ie