Counseling Adolescents Diagnosed With Conduct Disorder: Application of Emotion-Focused Therapy for Individuals

Adolescents diagnosed with conduct disorder (CD) experience difficulty regulating their emotions and engaging in effective social relationships and can potentially cause significant harm to individuals and property in their communities. The severe symptom cluster associated with CD impacts multiple aspects of the youth's life, including home, school, and community relationships. Due to the severity, it may be necessary to integrate an individual emotion-focused therapeutic intervention as one aspect of a multifaceted treatment approach. This paper proposes emotion-focused therapy for individuals as an intervention to meet the needs of adolescents diagnosed with CD in residential treatment and describes a hypothetical case illustration to demonstrate its application.