 |
|||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
 |
Back to Featured Interviews >> MEET JOHN SAROYAN
|
|||||||||||||||||
 |
| John Saroyan |
The goal was to educate and help adolescents and parents through a self-help genre book. The general audience is Junior High and High School students as well as the parents of youths who are struggling to be free from gang life. The book focuses on youths that are getting introduced to gangs or are already immersed in that dangerous lifestyle. The book includes history and background of the gang problem, as well as parenting advice, solutions, and vignettes that illustrate treatment for the adolescent.
What gave you the idea for writing this book about gangs?
As the Clinical Director for a major psychiatric hospital in Los Angeles County, I interviewed and screened difficult to place adolescents to see if they could benefit from psychiatric intervention/therapy rather than incarceration. Through this process, I met my co-author, Deputy Probation Officer Paul Cosores. Paul had referred several adolescents with gang affiliation for treatment to my facility; Paul is a gang expert and lecturer on gangs. We worked well together and decided to share our experiences and expertise in this book. Paul’s contribution included gang history and social intervention while my general contribution focused on adolescent treatment and parenting.
When you work with parents in therapy, what question do they ask you most?
Usually the questions center on how to set limits with their child. There are some children who will “act out” and become oppositional/defiant toward parents and other authority figures in their life. Parents need to learn techniques of firm and fair consequences while providing their child with love and support. It is my belief that these acting-out, angry youths are really struggling with deeper issues related to depression. This is usually uncovered when the family works together in family therapy.
What do you most want adolescents and parents to get out of your book?
Developmentally, adolescence is a time to seek out peer affiliation while becoming an individual outside the family. Though this is appropriate, there are healthy ways to become a unique individual and not act out through delinquency or disrespect. Parents need to understand their children during this life stage, yet maintain their role as parents.
If you didn’t write as a child, then when did you start writing and what inspired you to start?
Actually, I never saw myself as a writer. But I published my first article when I was providing music therapy for adolescents at a psychiatric hospital in the late 1980’s. It was meant to share some promising treatment techniques for resistant or introverted teens. A couple of years later, I wrote my doctoral dissertation and have also published some journal articles since then. All of my writings tend to be descriptive treatment or educationally focused.
Where do you get your ideas?
Some of the ideas in the book come from well established theorists, while some of the more practical information comes directly from the treatment I have done with adolescents and their families over the past twenty years.
What other jobs have you had before you became a writer?
Historically, I have held jobs at many different levels. Most recently, I have worked in the hospital setting in administration, overseeing treatment and programs for adolescents. Currently I am in private practice as a psychotherapist and treat adolescents and their families. I specialize in depression and aggressive/oppositional teens.
Is there anyone else you feel will benefit from this book about becoming free from gang life?
This book has been used by people from several different careers and interests. Along with adolescents and parents who use this book, it is currently utilized as a text for several university classes in psychology, sociology and criminology. Also, it is used by educators, administrators, peace officers, hospitals, clinics and other mental health treatment programs.
Are you planning on writing any more books like this one?
I am currently writing a theoretical model that is useful in understanding the self and others. The model has a positive orientation for the individual. I am very excited about this work and I feel that it is the type of book that everyone can relate to and understand.