• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.129-137
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• 1992

This article describes several clinical usefullness of the telephone in psychotherapy with adolescents through case analysis by Tolchin, and discussed various management problems and some practical guidelines for therapists planning to utilize telephone psychotherapy with adolescents through literature analysis. In general, most adolescent patients in regular treatment benefit from knowing that the therapist can be reached by phone and that their call will be returned that same day. The therapist's telephone availability helps the young patient to develope a positive working alliance. Telephone psychotherapy had it's first widespread application in crisis intervention and suicide prevention. It's current uses also include enhancement of self-control in cases of self-destructive adolescents, and management of anxious, depressive, or anorexic adolescents. In addition, such widely divergent modalities of treatment as follow up of patients discharged from a psychiatric hospital, alcoholic rehabilitation programs, drug hotlines, sex counselling group therapy for visually impaired elderly, control of separation anxiety in girls, resolution of fear on the mental disorders, and helpful modality to continue psychotherapy without geographic barrier during longer periods of separation with therapist are currently available via telephone. But telephone psychotherapy is generally not suitable for more self-defensive and introverted cases, more dependent chronic callers, silent cases, test callers. the cases of telephone scatologias, the cases of intellectualized discussion, of more dependent cases calling phone in order to get attention from therapist. Telephone psychotherapy for adolescents serves as an important and useful method in the therapeutic armamentarium for this most challenging and rewarding population.