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In Person
The Adolescent & Young Adult Collective (AYAC) 2026

Rescued Into Fragility: When Support Becomes Dysregulation (1B)

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Description

This presentation offers a clinically grounded, integrative model for understanding emotional dysregulation in adolescents and emerging adults through the lens of regulation development. It examines how family reinforcement patterns, including over-accommodation, financial rescue, and inconsistent boundaries, can unintentionally shape dependence on external regulation systems. Drawing from attachment theory, behavioral learning principles, developmental psychopathology, and substance use research, the talk explores how these dynamics contribute to low distress tolerance, identity instability, and increased vulnerability to maladaptive coping, including substance use. Special attention is given to gendered socialization patterns and their influence on regulation strategies. The presentation concludes with clear clinical implications for systemic intervention with caregivers and treatment planning.

Learning Objectives

Participants will be able to:

  • Identify at least three family reinforcement patterns.

  • Describe how family reinforcement patterns contribute to external regulation dependence and adolescent or emerging adult emotional dysregulation.

Educational Goal

The educational goal of this session is to provide a comprehensive, integrative framework for identifying systemic reinforcement patterns that impede autonomous regulation in adolescents and emerging adults and offer evidence-based strategies for intervention and treatment planning.

Target Audience

  • Addiction Professional
  • Counselor
  • Marriage & Family Therapist
  • Psychologist
  • Social Worker

Presenters

Jordan Held (he/him) is the President & Founder of Relentless Pursuit Therapy & Consulting, a concierge practice specializing in complex clinical work with individuals, families, and organizations. He helps people navigate high-conflict situations, family crises, and major life transitions while building more stable and sustainable ways of relating.
Jordan specializes in trauma, LGBTQ+ affirming care, and complex family systems that often fall outside traditional treatment models. He frequently works with families in crisis, multigenerational dynamics, and young adults transitioning from higher levels of care into everyday life. His approach is direct, practical, and highly individualized, focused on creating lasting change rather than simply managing symptoms.

In addition to his clinical work, Jordan consults with families and organizations around communication, leadership, and systemic conflict. He is an internationally recognized speaker supporting gender-diverse adolescents and their families, serves on the Board of Directors for the Los Angeles LGBT Center, and facilitates family support through JQ International and Transforming Family.

He also provides consultation, supervision, and trainings for clinicians, schools, and organizations, with a focus on helping people and systems get unstuck and function more effectively.

Financially Sponsored By

  • Visions Adolescent Treatment Centers