Even the most communicative, healthy families can feel overwhelmed and struggle to cope with life’s challenges from time to time. When a teen struggles with mental health issues and behavioral concerns, it impacts the whole family. For the teen to fully recover, the entire family must heal, which is why family therapy is essential to comprehensive treatment.
Teen family therapy can be a valuable resource to help families communicate effectively, understand and support one another’s needs, and work together to resolve family discord and trauma. Imagine Nampa provides outpatient day treatment programs for teens ages twelve through seventeen in a safe, supportive, and inclusive environment. If you have questions about teen family therapy, contact our team today. Use our online form or call 888.503.4604 to talk with a teen specialist.
Why Choose Family Therapy for Teens?
Our families are our first social groups, and family dynamics have profound, long-term impacts on our development and well-being. Involving the entire family in teen mental health treatment can teach family members how to relate to and support the teen, change unhealthy reactions to one another, and foster healthy communication and interpersonal skills.
Among the more common reasons that families seek family therapy are the following:
- Mental health conditions
- Behavioral or emotional issues
- Major life changes
- Emotional support
- Grief and loss
- Substance use disorders
Ongoing research continually supports that family therapy quickly helps identify problem areas, is highly effective, and fosters long-term recovery. Along with peers, the family has the most significant influence on teens. Therefore, families should strive to create and nurture healthy family dynamics.
What Are the Benefits of Teen Family Therapy?
Family therapy is a type of group therapy that aims to uncover the root causes of emotions, thoughts, and behaviors that influence mental health and overall well-being. Through teen family therapy, families learn to change unhealthy dynamics to grow and heal together.
The top benefits of teen family therapy include, but are not limited to:
- Improved communication and problem-solving skills
- Development of healthy personal boundaries and respect for other’s boundaries
- Cultivation of empathy, understanding, and connectedness
- Building trust
- Establishment of strategies to cope with stress and tension
- Reduction of family conflict
- Improved anger management skills
- A deeper understanding of other’s experiences
- Support to overcome challenges and achieve goals
Teen family therapy encourages families to express their feelings and listen to one another. With the guidance of a non-judgmental therapist, families can work through complex issues in a safe, controlled, confidential, and supportive environment.
How Does Family Counseling Work?
Family therapy is catered to each family’s unique needs and circumstances. Studies show that family counseling is most effective when therapists utilize a combination of approaches drawn from different schools of psychotherapy. Common approaches include:
- Narrative family therapy – Each family member is encouraged to tell their side of the story or perspective to create a holistic view of the family experience.
- Functional family therapy – A short-term approach to crisis management surrounding substance abuse or sudden changes in family dynamics.
- Family systems therapy – Helps family members understand and learn how to support mental health and behavioral disorders.
- Cognitive-behavioral therapy – Helps family members identify patterns of negative thinking and maladaptive behaviors and replace them with healthier ones.
- Psychoeducation – Educating families about mental health disorders and how symptoms impact functioning to help foster a safe and supportive home environment.
In addition to identifying and helping to resolve family conflict, a family therapist helps families identify their strengths and utilizes them throughout treatment. They help set goals for individual family members and the family unit as a whole.
Contact Imagine Nampa for Teen Family Therapy
At Imagine Nampa, we know the importance of family healing to successful and lasting recovery. Family therapy is one of the many mental health therapy programs we provide in our comprehensive treatment planning. We also offer the following:
- Assessment and diagnosis
- Individual therapy
- Group therapy
- Case management and care coordination
- Medication management
- Community support
- Aftercare planning
To learn more about the benefits of our teen family therapy program, contact us at 888.503.4604 or via our online form.