What is The Most Effective Treatment for Traumatized Teens? Tips From a Trauma Therapist in Salt Lake City, UT
Written by Christoffer Loderup, Therapist at Shade Tree Family Counseling
Being a teenager can be tough enough, but add trauma to the mix, and it can feel overwhelming. "What's the best way to deal with this?" The truth is, it depends on what your teen is ready for. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Let’s first define trauma before seeing how trauma therapy can help.
Understanding Trauma
Trauma can be anything from a single scary event to ongoing abuse or neglect. It leaves its mark, making it hard to cope with daily life. Your teen might get triggered by certain situations, have trouble trusting people, or down on themselves.
What Is Your Teen Ready For?
Healing the deep, core issues of the trauma will lead to long-term healing. But often, teens aren’t ready for that type of work and instead just want help dealing with big emotions that come up (such as anger, anxiety, or depression). Pushing a teen to work on deep issues when they aren’t ready can backfire. So, really, the most “effective treatment” depends on what your teen is ready for.
Different Paths
Learning Skills to Manage Triggers
There are many great tools your teen can learn to respond better to triggers. Here are a few approaches. These tools and approaches can be learned outside of trauma therapy or with the help of a trauma therapist at Shade Tree Family Counseling.
CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy): CBT helps people identify negative thought patterns and then change those patterns to have more realistic and healthy perspectives.
Journaling: Writing down your thoughts and feelings can be a powerful way to understand oneself better.
DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy): DBT teaches skills for managing emotions, relationships, and stress tolerance. Here are a few skills you and your teen can try at home.
DBT Skills to Manage Triggers in the Moment:
Mindfulness: Mindfulness exercises like focusing on your breath can help you stay grounded in the present moment and avoid getting caught up in negative thoughts.
Activities: What are activities you like to do that put you in a good mood? Do one of these with your teen next time they’re feeling overwhelmed or down.
Opposite Action: This skill is simple but powerful. Feeling sad? Do something that would make you happy, like going for a walk or listening to music. Feeling anxious? Do something that would make you feel calm (like deep breathing or cuddling with a pet).
Visualization: Imagine putting your negative thoughts in a box and locking them away can help you step away from overwhelming and distracting thoughts.
However, it isn’t healthy to stuff emotions away or avoid them indefinitely. Taking breaks when we get flooded, helps us regulate our emotions so that we can return to the stressful problem with our head squarely on our shoulders.
Healing from the Trauma With Trauma Therapy
If your teen is looking to work through the trauma itself for longer-term healing, there are different approaches available, such as EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing); IFS (Internal Family Systems; this is individual therapy, not family therapy); CBT (with a focus on core belief challenging); and somatic experiencing.
Through each of these therapy approaches, your teen can work through painful memories, so that they’re not triggering anymore, and they’ll identify and change false beliefs developed from the trauma. For example, they can change their belief from I can’t trust anyone to… I can’t trust the person who abused me. Or they’ll go from I have no worth (unless I’m perfect) to I’m worthy of love no matter what.
Healing is possible, and therapy is a powerful tool to help your teen in their healing journey.
Crisis Support
If you or your teen are in crisis, here are some important resources:
Call 911 if you or your teen is in immediate danger.
Call or text 988, the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, for immediate help when someone is experiencing suicidal thoughts or a mental health crisis.
Text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor through the Crisis Text Line.
You can also go to your nearest emergency room
Remember, you and your teen are not alone. Many teens have experienced trauma. Help is available. Healing is possible. With the right tools and support, your teen can heal.
Provide Extra Support For Your Teen’s Trauma With The Help of Trauma Therapy in Salt Lake City, UT
Is your teen struggling to cope with trauma? Our specialized trauma therapy can provide the support and tools they need to heal and thrive. Take the first step toward your teen's brighter, healthier future, with the help of qualified trauma therapists at Shade Tree Family Counseling who specialize in adolescent trauma. Follow these three simple steps to get started:
Schedule a free 15-minute consultation to see if trauma therapy is right for your teen
Begin meeting with a skilled trauma therapist
Start supporting your teen to help them overcome trauma!
Other Services Offered at Shade Tree Family Counseling
At Shade Tree Family Counseling, we want to provide support for the whole family. So in addition to helping your teen cope and begin healing from trauma in Trauma Therapy, our team offers teen counseling for teens struggling to overcome depression, anxiety, family conflict, and more. We also provide Teen Group Therapy for teens looking for extra support from those their own age. For more about trauma therapy check out our blog!
