Is it possible for us to understand troubled teens? We know that as adults we find it helpful to talk about our problems and emotions. This is because most of us have learned to talk about our feelings no matter how complex they might be. We are also more accepting of the grey areas of life due to our wider range of experiences.
For many troubled teens, this process is not quite as easy. This is because young people may find it harder to put their feelings into words and because they are dealing with many seemingly contradictory and overwhelming feelings at a time when their emotional and physical development are undergoing some powerful changes.
Unlike adults, the lives of a teenager are most often linked to those of their parents so they might find it harder to communicate conflicts with family members or parents. To understand troubled teens therefore requires different techniques to those we employ to help adults with their problems.
Troubled teens need a specialist approach from a counselor or therapist - this should reflect the life experiences of the teen. So talk therapy may not be the most effective form of therapy for a troubled teenager. In general; more active forms of therapy may work better. This approach would include experiential therapy, play therapy, and art therapy for example.
Some therapists use equine-assisted therapy to counsel teens. This is where troubled teens interact with horses as part of a therapeutic intervention allowing the therapist to observe how the child interacts with the animal and draw important conclusions from that behavior. It is believed that the way in which a teen interacts with the horse provides valuable clues to their relationship with their parents or peers.
Family therapy is often used to help troubled teens who have behavioral or emotional issues. Here a therapist will try to help make communication between family members and the teen work more efficiently and in so doing help both parties to learn techniques for conflict resolution.
Counseling troubled teens is centered on helping both the child and the parents to better understand some of the ways in which the teen behaves. It teaches a teen to express their needs and wants in a more positive, constructive way. When these issues are better understood and new behaviors implemented the family relationship as a whole improves as does the well-being of troubled teens.
So how do you know that your teenager has a real problem and isn’t just going through a ‘phase’? Parents might find it very difficult to recognize problem behavior in their teen. How do you know if your teen is at risk for drug/alcohol abuse, quitting school, an unplanned pregnancy, violence, depression, or even suicide? Unfortunately troubled teens aren’t always very easy to spot.
