Waltzing with Wolverines: Finding Connection and Cooperation with Troubled Teens, Paperback

In these pages you'll find riveting stories illustrating clear principles for achieving success with even the most trying of teenagers. In a job where average length of employment is measured in months, and many last only weeks, Mark Andreas not only survived, but thrived while working round-the-clock with troubled teens. Whether you are a parent, a teacher, a youth leader, or anyone wanting to connect with and support the teens in your life, may this book offer you an enjoyable road map on the journey.

Excerpt from the Introduction:

"I didn't think you'd last beyond your first expedition," the ex Army Ranger exclaimed, shaking my hand with a firm grasp despite missing nearly all of four fingers on his right hand. "When I first met you two years ago, I thought the kids would eat you up."

Memories from expedition after expedition flooded through me, reminding me why so many other trip leaders didn't last. There was the time Toby drank his own pee and pooped in his hands, chasing the other kids around camp with his weapon of mass disruption, then dropping his bio-terrorism in favor of threatening to stab me with his tent stakes.... There was the time Christine and Kendra cheeked their meds, crushed them up, and did lines off the office toilet seat.... On our drive to New Mexico, Adrian had a temper tantrum and shattered the front windshield of the car.... And there was the expedition when Tom and Ken stole my Subaru key and managed to use it to start the pick-up truck in the middle of the night, escaping to a nearby town where they robbed a ski shop before driving the wrong way down a one-way street only to discover a police car coming the other direction....

These experiences profoundly transformed my understanding of how to work with youth, teaching me vital lessons that I want to share with you, so you can be as impactful as possible with the teens in your life.

Mark Andreas grew up in the Rocky Mountains, led wilderness trips throughout his college years, and from 2006-2008 he worked as a counselor/trip leader for the Monarch Center for Family Healing, a wilderness therapy company. At Monarch Mark led groups of troubled youth on three-week-long backpacking expeditions throughout the western United States, facilitating both individual therapy and group process on a round-the-clock basis while also teaching wilderness skills. Since working at Monarch, Mark has been in private practice offering Personal Change Coaching to individuals around the world, meeting both in-person and over Skype to help people achieve life-goals and resolve limitations using NLP, Core Transformation, and other methods for personal transformation and development (www.markandreas.com). Mark offers custom trainings nationally, is an instructor of NLP at Red Rocks Community College, and a trainer for the NLP of the Rockies' Real World Integrated NLP Practitioner Training program. His previous book, Sweet Fruit from the Bitter Tree: 61 stories of creative and compassionate ways out of conflict, is a collection of true stories of creative responses to conflict, endorsed by Dan Millman and William Ury.