As a teenager, your child is going through a time of significant growth and change. They are experiencing new things and learning skills that will help them to succeed as an adult. However, your teen is also at a higher risk of substance use disorder (SUD) and addiction. Getting treatment at Sustain Recovery is the first step to recovery if your child is struggling. However, to stay sober, you and your teen will need to work together. You may wonder, “How can family therapy help my teen stay sober?” While your family’s situation is unique, family therapy can make a significant difference by helping you to support your teen after treatment and improving your communication with each other.
Family Therapy in Teen Addiction Treatment
Living at home, your teen is greatly impacted by the family system as a whole. Additionally, it impacts both you and others who live at home. Family therapy in addiction treatment for your teen is an ideal way to better understand the dynamics at play and help the entire family unit begin to heal.
There are many different types of family therapy. Sustain Recovery can work with you and your teen to find the ideal modality for you. However, regardless of the specific type used, family therapy allows you and your teen to work together with a counselor. The counselor might lead you through different topics, delve into trauma, or have you and your teen go through role-play exercises.
How Can Family Therapy Help Your Teen?
When your teen is struggling with addiction, you may wonder, “How can family therapy help my teen? Shouldn’t individual therapy be enough?” Family therapy is a highly effective and important piece of your teen staying sober. While individual therapy is important, family therapy also plays an important role in the recovery process. It helps provide your teen with the necessary support to stay sober and also can improve the entire family system.
Getting Support to Stay Sober
Going to treatment is an important step in your teen’s healing from SUD. However, it is only the beginning. When your teen returns home, they will need your care and support to maintain their sobriety. Often this includes a balance of structure and safety for your teen. The exact balance will vary, and with your counselor, you and your teen can find the right path forward.
Knowing what your teen needs and how to provide effective support is not easy. Family therapy helps you and your teen to understand how you can work together. This includes learning to improve communication and building a foundation of support that helps your teen understand that you care and want to help them be successful in their recovery.
Improving the Family System
Ten’s specific challenges with substance abuse and addiction vary, but the family system commonly plays a role. This system is also affected by your teen’s substance use. Working with a counselor in family therapy can help understand the dynamics at play.
Family therapy can help you and your teen better understand the impact you have on each other. Working with a counselor, you both will learn what and how to make adjustments to the family system. This will include things like communication style, self-care, and more. As you and your teen work together to address the family system, you are also learning to problem-solve together. Therefore, improving the family system in family therapy can help your teen stay sober in multiple ways.
It can be very difficult to address and change the family system. In order to do so, you and your teen will both need to be honest. This requires digging deep and being open to making changes to a system that feels normal for you. Family therapy is only the beginning of these changes. However, by working with a counselor, you are more likely to make the necessary changes that will make staying sober easier for your teen and provide support for other challenges that they may face.
Can Family Therapy Help the Entire Family Heal?
Your teen’s actions impact the entire family. This can cause frustration, anger, and other feelings that can negatively impact their ability to move forward and prevent the entire family from healing. Addressing how your teen’s struggles with substance abuse have affected others in family therapy can help.
When you and your teen work with a counselor together, you can express your feelings and explain how their substance abuse affected the family. This will help everyone to heal. However, it will also help to build a foundation of honest communication with your teen. Such communication will improve your overall relationships and give you and your teen a clean slate moving forward. Without addressing these frustrations, your teen may return to a home where there are underlying and unaddressed emotions that will stunt their ability to stay sober.
As a parent supporting a teen struggling with addiction, you may be at a loss in terms of how to support them when they leave treatment. Additionally, you may wonder what aspects of your family system need to change in order for your teen to stay sober. At Sustain Recovery, we believe that parents play an integral role in their teen’s recovery. We offer family therapy as a way for you and your teen to improve communication and your family system as a whole. If you are interested in learning more about addiction treatment and the levels of care available at Sustain Recovery, we are here to answer any questions. Call us today at (949) 407-9052.
