When your teen is struggling with their mental health or addiction or has a history of trauma, it often greatly impacts your relationship with them. It can cause you to feel disconnected due to a lack of communication and understanding. However, Sustain Recovery believes that you, as a parent, play an important role in your teen’s recovery. Therefore it is important for you to reconnect with your teen. Fortunately, therapy can help you learn how to reconnect with your teen regardless of the challenges that they are facing.
Why You Need to Reconnect
When your teen is struggling with their mental health, or has an issue with substance abuse or trauma, their behavior will change dramatically. As a parent, you might find yourself feeling frustrated with their choices and behavior. In trying to help them change, you may feel at the end of your rope, not knowing how to help them or how to reconnect with your teen.
While you and your teen’s relationship is unique, they might be pulling away from you as a result of symptoms associated with a mental health disorder, addiction, or trauma. This can lead to them not telling you what is really going on because they are unsure. However, it may also be their lack of communication skills.
Reconnect With Your Teen Through Therapy
Family therapy is a type of therapeutic modality that involves the entire family. Through family therapy at Sustain Recovery, you and your teen work with a counselor together. This can include traditional talk therapy, or it can involve other therapeutic methods. The specific modalities utilized will depend on your unique needs.
Through family therapy, you and your teen can learn how to effectively reconnect. Family therapy can help you to improve communication and increase mutual understanding. These skills go beyond simply reconnecting now. They help you and your teen to maintain a healthy connection and work through challenges in the future as well.
Improving Communication
Communicating with your teen is a challenge. They are at a time in their life when they are changing, discovering, and growing. Some days talking with your teen will feel like having an adult conversation. However, other times will require more patience and understanding on your end. Regardless of the unique challenges you have, family therapy will help to improve communication.
In family therapy, you and your teen have a mediator. Your counselor will help you and your teen by facilitating the conversation. This will help in multiple ways. First, it will redirect the conversation as needed. This ensures that communication is kept on track to solve problems rather than increase them. Additionally, the counselor during family therapy will help to improve communication. Both you and your teen can learn to express your feelings and thoughts, which, in turn, helps you to work together to problem-solve.
Increasing Understanding
In order to reconnect with your teen, it’s also necessary to understand where your teen is coming from. When you can empathize with them and understand their perspective, your teen is more likely to feel safe and secure in making mistakes and learning. This can be very difficult to do for most parents, but when they are struggling with mental health, trauma, or substance abuse, it is even more challenging.
Fortunately, family therapy can facilitate this process. When you work with a counselor, they help your teen to identify and express what they are feeling and going through. Additionally, they will help you to reframe your understanding of your teen and their challenges. Essentially, they help you and your teen get on the same page. This will improve both your and your teen’s understanding of the situation, which provides you with the opportunity to work together to solve the issues at hand.
Why It Is Important to Reconnect With Your Teen
When you and your teen are disconnected, your teen is left to solve all of their problems on their own. Even when you provide structure and support, a disconnected relationship results in your support not always being helpful. However, when you reconnect with your teen, this dynamic can change. By reconnecting with your teen, you can provide effective support to help them create new solutions and make changes that improve their healing.
Managing mental health at any age is difficult; however, it is particularly hard for teens and adolescents. This is due to the multitude of changes that are occurring in their lives. However, when you as a parent provide support, they are more likely to be able to manage their mental health. They can come to you for support, and, as a parent, you can help them to navigate and find ways to improve their overall mental health.
This is also true if your teen is struggling with substance abuse or healing from trauma. Getting support and care at home improves their chances of making changes that make a substantial difference. Essentially, your support gives your teen a chance to make changes that will not only help them now but also build a foundation for a healthy and happy adulthood.
After experiencing challenges with addiction, mental health, or trauma, as a parent, you might feel a complete disconnect with your teens. However, through family therapy, you can learn to understand where your teen is at and how to support them through the changes they are making. At Sustain Recovery, we believe that parents play an important role in a teen’s life after treatment. We offer family therapy as a way for you and your teen to make changes, heal, and move forward. If you have a teen who is struggling with mental health, substance abuse, or trauma, we can help. Call Sustain Recovery today at (949) 407-9052 to learn more about our programs.
