Offering experiential therapy techniques is the hallmark of a top addiction treatment center. In addition to evidence-based care approaches, they encourage self-expression. What’s the point of these therapies? Most importantly, how could they help your teen in recovery?
Substance Abuse Robs You of Your Identity
The teen experiential therapy in California cannot help but acknowledge that drugs fundamentally change the person. The person isn’t the same. Some individuals lose track of their emotional makeup. Others also take on personality traits that don’t adequately describe them. Experiential therapy techniques help your teen to rediscover her or his emotional makeup. Individuals get back in touch with their emotions. In the process, they also rebuild self-esteem. Most importantly, they learn to let go of the negative feelings that have been building up for a while. For example, experiential therapy activities include:
- Surf therapy that acts as a catalyst of personal development, growth, and self-reliance
- Yoga that becomes a tool of stress relief and the ability to look inward for peace
- Body movement, which focuses on the boosting of self-confidence and greater physical awareness of the self
- Music therapy for sensory stimulation that also encourages self-expression in new, creative, and sometimes challenging ways
Combining Experiential Therapy Techniques with Evidence-Based Treatments
No matter how practical those experiential therapy activities are for your teens, they can’t stand alone. Instead, they must become part of a more extensive care protocol that emphasizes the use of evidence-based modalities. Examples include:
- Cognitive-behavioral therapy that looks at dysfunction between emotions, thoughts, and actions
- Dialectical behavior treatment for teens whose strong emotions override rational decision-making
- Dual diagnosis treatment for teens with co-occurring mental health disorders such as schizophrenia or anxiety
- Trauma treatment, which assists clients who need to reprocess a traumatic event from the past
- Group therapy as a tool for creating personal accountability and peer input
- One-on-one talk therapy that’s excellent for setting goals and checking the progress
It’s Not Just a Phase
Teen substance abuse isn’t just a phase. Although it would be easy to claim that every young person experiments with drugs, that’s not true. Almost all teens with a drug problem who don’t get help become adults with chemical dependency. It makes the most sense to help a teen while it’s still possible to minimize the damage a drug does. Besides that, getting help now allows the individual to get back on track with academic pursuits. It’s a great way of preventing drop-outs from occurring or higher education dreams from coming to nothing. In the same way, consider that working through substance abuse now offers an opportunity for tremendous personal growth.
How to Sign up for Teen Rehab
Usually, it’s the parent who makes the phone call. That’s okay. Sometimes, parents and teens call together. This gives intake consultants a chance to talk to the prospective client directly. Most importantly, it enables the consultants to dispel any myths and take away the fear of the unknown. At Destinations for Teens, caring therapists routinely work with young clients just as your teen. Find out more about our experiential therapy techniques and other care approaches. Call 877.466.0620 right now while you’re thinking about it!