When a teen is struggling with their mental health, it impacts the entire family. However, due to the many changes occurring in a teen’s development, it can be hard to know specifically what is occurring in terms of mental health challenges. Fortunately, family therapy at Sustain Recovery can help. As parents and teens work through challenges together, both improve awareness in family therapy. These changes help teens and parents better understand the mental health challenges and methods that can help manage them.
Family Therapy
In family therapy, teens and parents work together with a counselor. As a therapeutic modality, it is an evidence-based approach. Specifically, family therapy helps improve relationships in a family and addresses challenges that both parents and teens are struggling with.
Due to the many challenges teens and their families face, the content of family therapy varies for each family. Additionally, there are different methods that can be utilized. At Sustain Recovery, family therapy incorporates the content and approaches that are helpful for each individual teen and their family.
Improving Awareness in Family Therapy
Family therapy helps teens and their parents in many ways, including helping to improve awareness. When a teen improves awareness in family therapy, it is multifaceted. However, it includes helping them understand their unique mental health challenges and symptoms. Therapy helps provide insight into what influences their mental health. Additionally, it gives them the tools to make changes to improve their mental health symptoms. Specifically, family therapy helps provide teens insight into how their family system and interactions with their families impact their mental health.
Due to the nature of family therapy, parents are also positively influenced by family therapy. While each family is different, parents learn how their interactions and actions impact their teen’s mental health. Additionally, family therapy offers a unique glimpse into their teen’s life. This can help them to have a better understanding of how their teen is feeling and what they are struggling with.
Learning Awareness in Family Therapy at Sustain Recovery
When a teen struggles with their mental health, it impacts the entire family. However, their family also impacts them. Treatment at Sustain Recovery takes this connection into consideration. Therefore, family therapy is often a component of treatment utilized to involve the family in treatment for mental health challenges like depression or anxiety.
Family therapy often plays an important role in mental health treatment. However, at Sustain Recovery, it is part of a holistic healing plan. Teens in treatment are going through other treatment modalities to help them heal, grow, and improve their awareness. Therefore, they have time and space to improve awareness both in and out of family therapy. As a result, they are more likely to have the foundational skills necessary to improve their and their parents’ awareness during and after treatment.
Improving awareness is a challenging process that looks different for each unique teen. However, it often includes being put in situations that encourage them to look inside themselves. This might look like working with a counselor who asks questions and guides them in awareness. Additionally, at Sustain Recovery, treatment also includes non-traditional modalities like music therapy or adventure learning that encourage teens to become more aware of their thoughts, feelings, and interactions with others.
Value of Awareness to Improve Mental Health in Teens
When a teen is more aware, they are more capable of understanding their mental health. This includes being aware of the symptoms they are experiencing. Additionally, improved awareness means knowing what factors impact their mental health, and how their thoughts, feelings, and actions all impact their mental health symptoms. The ability to be aware is highly impactful and valuable for a teen’s mental health. It helps them know how to care for their needs and be more prepared to regulate their emotions.
Teens are at a point in their lives when they are learning skills that will help their ability to care for their needs as adults. However, when a teen is struggling with mental health symptoms, this is particularly difficult. Fortunately, awareness can help. Teens who are more aware of their mental health have the information to make different and helpful choices. For example, awareness can include understanding that proper nutrition improves their mental health. As a result, they can learn and choose to heal in a healthy manner, knowing they will feel better overall.
Many teens who struggle with their mental health also find it difficult to regulate their emotions. Awareness is a skill that can help. When a teen is aware of their emotions, such as anger, they can choose what to do with their feelings. However, a teen who is unaware of how they are feeling is more likely to lash out or act recklessly as a way to cope.
Often, a teen’s mental health challenges impact the entire family, and the family impacts their mental health. In family therapy, both teens and parents can improve their awareness of what factors impact the teen’s mental health, giving the entire family tools to heal. At Sustain Recovery, we understand that incorporating the family into a teen’s healing process is important and can help the entire family heal. We offer family therapy as a part of the entire treatment program and encourage teens to learn skills, including awareness, that help them thrive after treatment. If you are interested in learning more about Sustain Recovery and our treatment programs, call us today at (949) 407-9052.
