Trauma Treatment for Adolescents
For a parent, nothing is more important than making sure your kids are happy, healthy, and safe. If your child experiences traumatic events, it can have life-altering, long-lasting effects that alter the course of their life forever if undiagnosed and untreated.
At SunCloud Health, we have treatment programs that can help your teenager find themselves again, develop healthy coping strategies, and look optimistically to the future after experiencing trauma. Please contact us for an assessment to determine if our offerings are the right fit for the needs of your child, patient, or student.
Continue reading to familiarize yourself with the nuances that make up trauma and co-occurring mental disorders, and discover how SunCloud Health can help your teenager excel with a custom treatment plan.
Does my teen have mental health issues related to traumas?
Teen trauma occurs when teenagers witness or experience a traumatic event. These events may include a life-threatening illness or incident, witnessing a life-threatening incident, death of a loved one, divorce, bullying in school, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, or violent physical abuse.
Teenagers have many different reactions when it comes to trauma. For example, family problems can be exacerbated by teen trauma because teens often find themselves with an inability to communicate. They need time to process what has happened to them and acknowledge it. They may also be scared to confide in their parents, worry about upsetting the status quo, or be fearful of judgment. These communication barriers keep teens from getting the support that they need.
Teens may turn to peers, which might feel safer but will ultimately not allow them to heal. A teen trauma therapist or clinical psychologist can provide a supportive environment for teens to communicate their feelings, work through the trauma in a safe space, and postpone having those difficult conversations with their parents until they have the words, skills, and confidence to do so. This is a much more productive and effective route.
It’s critical to have your teen evaluated by a mental health professional specializing in trauma if your teen has witnessed or experienced a traumatic event. Don’t delay in reaching out for support to prevent serious complications.
Why treat teenage trauma?
A negative behavioral pattern that develops due to past trauma has strong roots in a teenager’s mind, and the longer those patterns perpetuate, the more difficult they are to break. Sadly, smaller reactions that lead to more extreme, reckless reactions and behavioral consequences is a common occurrence with teen trauma. Proper mental health treatment can address these reactions and help your child develop the coping skills needed to reframe the traumatic event as they heal.
Counseling and childhood trauma therapy for teens has been described (by teens) as “not too difficult” and many teenagers progress quickly through the program. The alternative to trauma therapy for teens is to let them heal on their own. This may work for some, but for most teenagers taking this approach will only heal momentarily, and often have recurrent traumas that can end up a deeper pain (PTSD). Early help and treatment can prevent your teen from developing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and help them more quickly return to their lives.
Trauma-focused therapy for teens at SunCloud Health starts with meeting your teen where they are at while teaching new coping mechanisms and, along with a caring support team, we will address what’s at the heart of the problem.
Video: What to Look for in Treatment for Your Child?
Dr. Alexander Chevalier, Medical Director, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at SunCloud Health, gives parents helpful advice on what to look for when considering treatment centers their child experiencing trauma or other mental health disorders.
Teenage trauma can wreak havoc on a teenager’s life. Contact our trauma-informed care experts today to help your teen get back on track and find joy in life again.
What are the Symptoms of Teenage Trauma?
Signs of trauma in teens vary and no two teenagers are alike. Here is a common list of distressing symptoms that teens can exhibit when they have gone through one or more traumatic experiences. If you see any of these signs of trauma in your teen, it’s time to evaluate the situation and let us guide them through the healing process.
Trauma Symptoms & Signs in Teens Include:
- Reckless behavior
- Irritability and inappropriate anger
- Anxiety attacks and panic attacks
- Emotional numbness and lack of joy
- Using drugs or alcohol to numb pain
- Illogical behavior that is confusing
- Parents are in a constant state of worry about their teen
- Depression
- Avoidance of friends and things the teen used to love
- Talking about suicide or attempted suicide
Don’t let your teen suffer. When you see signs of trauma in teens, contact teen trauma therapy professionals and get teens the help they need.
Should you get professional counseling/treatment for teenagers who have experienced trauma?
Did you know that 61% of teens have experienced one or more traumatic events in their life? And that teenagers who experience trauma are 15 times more likely to make a suicide attempt? These statistics are shocking and highlight the need for professional treatment for teenagers who have experienced trauma. Teens are dealing with numerous life stressors simply because they are teenagers and those stressors are only amplified with trauma.
School guidance counselors can help teenagers immensely with everyday stressors, anxiety, and choosing high school classes or college programs. However, school guidance counselors are trained in more common mental health issues and do not have the specialized skill set required for teen trauma treatment. It’s important to find trauma therapy for teens that are administered by professionals with an extensive background in treating trauma specifically.
Teen Trauma Treatment at SunCloud Health
When it comes to trauma therapy for teens at SunCloud Health, we focus on the individual teenager with our proven integrated approach. Each person receives a customized treatment plan that fits their psychological trauma background, their experience with trauma, and their emotional responses and reactions to their trauma(s), as well as their personality and lifestyle habits. Effective treatment approaches trauma from a multidisciplinary perspective.
Our integrated approach is a collaboration of psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists, and registered dieticians working together with teenagers to become their best selves. We use both individual and group therapy sessions, depending on the teenager’s comfort level and therapy needs. Therapeutic approaches to treat trauma includes Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), cognitive processing therapy, talk therapy, art therapy, exposure therapy, mindfulness, and other unique therapies.
SunCloud Health offers both Partial Hospitalization Programs (PHP) and Intensive Outpatient Programs (IOP) for young adults. Our PHP runs Monday through Friday from 9am-3:30pm, while our IOP is available three to five times weekly from 4-7pm. Both programs are available at our Naperville, Chicago, and Northbrook centers.
Designed for adolescents requiring varying levels of support, our programs allow for dedicated time for schoolwork and maintain direct collaboration with their schools. They also ensure whole-person care, as our clinical psychologists and other trauma-focused experts specialize in treating the co-occurring as well, which may include depression, substance use disorder, eating disorders, anxiety disorders, PTSD, school refusal, and other behavioral health conditions. Learn more about our approach and what to expect here.
Video: Why consider SunCloud Health for your child
Trauma can develop into post-traumatic stress disorder without intervention.
Early intervention after experiencing a traumatic situation or witnessing traumatic events has the best chance of preventing PTSD.
If your teenager has experienced trauma, contact SunCloud Health today for an evaluation and treatment program designed to prevent PTSD. Don’t wait until your teen shows PTSD symptoms, help your teen now.
From admit to discharge, we see an aggregate improvement in our adolescents as measured by the PHQ-9. Lower scores reflect an improvement.
