T:	for coming in um so I'm not sure how much you know already about sort of what you're doing here if it's okay I'll give you a little rundown so basically we're here I'm just going to talk to you for a little bit about sort of what your goals are for your life get to know you a little bit better and talk about some different behaviors that you might be engaging in it's not my job at all to judge you or to try and change you you know basically I'm going to talk to you about how things are going any changes you might want to make in your life how I could help you with that and just what I can do that's going to be most beneficial for you that's not okay all right so I guess just to get started can you tell me a little bit about yourself
C:	well my name is Laura I'm  years old and I'm a senior in high school 
T:	okay and what kinds of things do a plan for your life 
C:	well hopefully go to college get you know get enough grades to go to college that's great do you have a plan as to where you might want to go or um I'm not sure yet might be a few schools in the area I'm looking maybe to apply out of state oh alright being away for college cool 
T:	yeah so kind of keeping your options open yeah definitely great and you have an idea about what you might want to study or yeah maybe I'm pre-law oh wow okay that's exciting 
T:	yeah all right cool um what do you like to do for fun 
C:	well um on the weekends I like to hang out with my friends maybe go like a party or go to the mall to shop or if there's like a school related event we'll go to like a football game or something like that yeah I like to have a good time 
T:	yeah and you have a lot of friends or a few close people or 
C:	um I would say like a moderate amount I'm not really really popular or like I have no friends um I'm like normal alright that's a good way to be right yeah alright 
T:	so um it sounds like in general your things are going pretty well for you how are your grades right now um they're pretty good a zombie's so 
C:	I'm doing okay okay
T:	well one thing I want to ask about is you know different people have sort of different values or things that are important to them they might you know be really close with family or really have you know their friends as being something particularly important I'm going to show you just a few things on this sheet and if you can look more so there's things like belonging community cultural identity family friendship modesty religion respect self-determination and spirituality which of those do you think is sort of important to you 
C:	um family definitely a friendship and belonging 
T:	okay what's important to you about your family 
C:	well I I love them so I want them to think well of me and I want them to be accepting and love me okay and you have brothers or sisters yeah I have one sister okay great and how about friendship 
C:	friendship I've grown close to many people that I care about so I would like them to be accepting of me as well great so being a good friend and having people who are good friends too is important and then what about belonging you mentioned that one - 
C:	yeah just a sense of like fitting in and like being accepted you know yeah not 
T:	wanting to be part of a group yeah kind of okay great all right well one of the things I want to talk about is you know you mentioned that you like to go out with friends and party and that sort of a thing and I'm curious when you're at the parties do you ever have any alcohol 
C:	um not much maybe like one or two drinks at the most 
T:	okay can you tell me a little bit about how alcohol fits into your overall social scene 
C:	um I pretty much just have a drink just just have it like so it looks like I'm drinking even though I'm not so maybe people bug me about drinking or something 
T:	okay you're kind of getting pressure from other people who are drinking and it feels easier for you to hold a drink 
C:	have one they're pretending you have it okay and do you think that this is most weekends or occasionally
T:	how often do you think that you are one or two weekends of the most very much so
T:	one or two weekends a month you're in a situation where there is alcohol yeah okay and what sort of situations are you in 
C:	well just I guess at a party or something someone's house uh-huh or even if it's not a party like a small social gathering maybe there'll be like a few beers around mm-hmm so mainly just kind of hanging out with friends pretty much
T:	yeah are you ever places where there are parents around or are mostly just just with the kids 
C:	mostly just with us but sometimes I'll go to like a close friend's house and like I'm close to her family as well so well I'll just hang out 
T:	and what about driving 
C:	um like drunk driving 
T:	yeah do you ever go anywhere in a car after you've had any alcohol definitely no I've never drunk driven and I've never been in a car with a drunk driver 
T:	so that's something that you've sort of made a decision about that sounds I know that's extremely dangerous okay what do you know about how that's dangerous
C:	um well alcohol definitely impairs your judgment so I mean driving under the influence of alcohol can lead to like crashes and accidents and things like that so I'd rather not be in that situation so
T:	you're really trying to be safe and and make sure that you're not putting yourself in those situations that's great you know it's it's tough to do sometimes and I really commend you for being able to to stick with that yeah so you mentioned you pretty much will like hold a drink or maybe have a drink or two what do you thinks the most alcohol you've ever had in in one day 
C:	no more than two drinks okay so the the absolute most yeah those two okay and 
T:	what kinds of things do you like about alcohol um
C:	I've never really been drunk so I can't really say that I like that being or not but it's just I I mean you're just in a good mood 
T:	mm-hmm so it just kind of makes you feel relaxed yeah okay relax okay anything else 
C:	um no not really like I said I don't drink that much so I I wouldn't be able to tell you okay and
T:	any not-so-good things about alcohol 
C:	um definitely yeah I mean what about parties is stuff and it's getting a little late some people that drink like drank too much they start throwing up or they get hurt or they're really loud and obnoxious and that's not fun for anybody
T:	so you've seen a lot of other kids you had some consequences and decided that's not for you yeah 
T:	got it I can understand that any other things that you can think of 
C:	um no I mean I've never you know been friends with anybody that's got into like a serious accident and stuff it's just very like obnoxious thing 
T:	okay well so you know as someone who's not  yet it is underage drinking is something that's not legal and it is something that is considered pretty risky so I'm wondering what you think about that just in terms of how it fits into your life 
C:	um I know it's definitely risky but I mean I guess we still do it uh-huh
T:	so it's kind of something that here it's just there it's just there okay and I'm curious you mentioned you know your friends are important to you and your family's important to you sort of fitting in as important to you and how does alcohol play a role with that 
C:	um well definitely not in my family life because my parents don't really condone okay alcohol use but friendships I mean when I'm hanging out with my friends that were at a party or something there's usually alcohol involved okay 
T:	so from your family perspective the drinking is not something that fits very well yeah and with friends you feel like it's easier to hang out with alcohol or maybe you wouldn't have as much fun or your friends wouldn't like you as much 
C:	I guess I mean this is just there okay so it ties in with the whole blogging okay
T:	well when you think about your drinking and sort of looking forward and five years or ten years how do you think that drinking might fit in with your life 
C:	um it probably will have a very small role if any mm-hmm in my life considering I have big plans for my future okay
T:	can you expand on that a little bit more what do you mean 
C:	I mean I don't think I would be you know drinking as much your going to parties as much if I'm studying for school or in college or trying to get it off things like that okay 
T:	so the alcohol is something that might make it harder to reach your goals yeah definitely so when you're sort of looking ahead how often do you think you might be drinking say when you get to college 
C:	um maybe less than I am now I mean I don't drink much anyway so maybe like one drink every once in a blue moon okay 
T:	so you sort of have a plan to cut back on your drinking eventually how might that go 
C:	well I mean I guess right now I would try to stop in highschool and once I get older maybe just like socially once in a while but not anything bigger 
T:	yeah you don't feel the need to make any major changes but you feel like you could make some adjustments that doesn't get ya that's a good word okay how important is it to you to make some adjustments to your drinking on a scale of one to ten where one is not at all important not something you're thinking about and ten is the most important thing 
C:	maybe of five or six and 
T:	why did you say five or six rather than like two or three 
C:	because um it's not something I do not care about at all but it's not something that's just constantly on my mind that I want to change about myself okay so it is something you have thought about yeah 
T:	yeah okay and how confident are you that you could make a change if you decide you wanted to on that same scale 
C:	um I'm pretty confident but I can considering that I'm not really an alcohol user say I'm not really into that whole scene so it's not going to be difficult for me 
T:	so what number do you think you'd say um on the scale 
C:	one through ten favorite quit or not yeah maybe like an eight or nine okay and
T:	why'd you say eight or nine rather than even like five or six 
C:	because like I said it's not a big part of my life so it's not really types of people okay all right well kind of keeping that in mind
T:	it sounds like you do have sort of a vague plan to make some adjustments in your drinking at some point yes and it's moderately important to you it's something you would like to do because you have these big goals for yourself and you actually feel very confident that you could be successful with it what sort of goal do you think might be good to set for today 
C:	um probably to stop maybe next party I go to not have a drink at all okay 
T:	do you feel pretty confident that you could just stop completely 
C:	yeah I mean I can just tell my friends my parent my friends aren't really that pressuring it's just like outside people that I don't really know that well oh so I could just tell them hey I don't feel like having a drink today 
T:	what might be some benefits of falling through with that goal 
C:	um definitely I'll have like all my senses there and I'll be aware of everything that's going on uh-huh anything else um health concerns I guess I know alcohol is bad for your health and so that would be one okay so
T:	it's it sounds like you're actually pretty comfortable with setting a goal of not drinking any more at least at the next party and seeing how it goes yeah okay do you think it would be alright if we met again to kind of check in on how it goes and see if it's working out for you yeah that would be okay alright great and then 
T:	it sounds like some of the benefits you're expecting are health benefits having an easier time with achieving your academic and career goals and just sort of not having to deal with some of the consequences that your peers do right okay well very good is there anything else that you think would be important for me to know
C:	um how would you advise me till I get maybe my friends to stop drinking oh
T:	that's a great question so a lot of times kids who are trying to cut back it's harder if their friends are still drinking and one of the easiest things is trying to have more activities that don't involve alcohol but of course that's harder if you're not the one planning so some of the things that can be useful if you're at a party say and there's already alcohol there and there are other kids that maybe aren't your closest friends some of the things that I would recommend since you're interested are you know carrying around a different drink that looks like it has alcohol in it so you know even carrying an empty beer bottle or beer can or you know if people are having a mixed drink just having the coke say without any all mixed into it often having anything in your hand is a good barrier for people who are trying to offer you alcohol because you already have something in it kind of prevents them from trying to stuff something else in there do you think any of those things might work for you 
C:	yeah for sure
T:	okay what about in terms of talking to your friends about it have you thought about how you might approach with them or is that something else you'd like some tips about about telling them about your plan too I need to stop drinking I was just planning on playing them that I don't really want to drink anymore that wasn't me uh-huh no your friends would be pretty comfortable with that yeah I mean now it's my closest friends for sure okay great any other concerns or questions anything else I go but no I think I'm okay okay so then like I said I'll try and see if we can meet up maybe in a few weeks and see how it's going and then if things are going great then fantastic and if you run into any stumbling blocks and we can maybe problem solve together okay great that's sound okay yeah all