This book was written in an effort to share our combined knowledge of teens, gained both as mental health professionals and as parents. We wanted to put together something that parents could understand, short and to the point, with as little psychological jargon as possible, and most importantly, something that would be useful. Our planning began with a look at the various aspects of the teenage experience that regularly impact upon parenting. We decided to include information on development, communication, schools, peer relationships, families, sexuality, religion, drugs and alcohol, and mental health problems, and to attempt to frame everything around these subjects. Throughout the book we have brought our different perspectives into play. Dr. Vergamini, a child and adolescent psychiatrist, has for several decades consulted to many child and adolescent evaluation and/or treatment programs (inpatient, outpatient, mental health, substance abuse, etc.) and operated a private medical practice (in Oregon). Dr. Miskimins, a clinical psychologist, draws from his experiences directing an inner-city program for youth in Colorado, serving as Clinical Director (then as Executive Director) of an adolescent residential treatment center for emotionally disturbed teens in Oregon, and maintaining a long-term private practice. In addition, both of us are family men, still married to the same women we started out with, and each has three children, now grown. And each of us has had a child with special needs.