Group Psychotherapy with Deaf Adolescents

The deaf adolescent can be seen as facing even more difficult hurdles of normal growth and development than their hearing counterparts. Group psychotherapy can be an effective medium and an opportunity for developing communication tools and skills helpful in negotiating these hurdles more quickly and more smoothly for deaf and hearing-impaired adolescents who are not experiencing any psychological distress or psychopathology, but are experiencing "normal" adolescent adjustment problems at home and/or at school.

Helping the hearing-impaired adolescent master tasks of normal growth and development can often alleviate adjustment problems and prevent further problems of adjustment in the hearing world. The process and outcome of a group of deaf students from the special education program of a public school district in Texas will be reported.