If you have struggled with how to manage and raise your troubled teenager, you
may have had the discussion about where to get help outside your family circle and
the community around you.
Fortunately, there are specialized programs targeted at varying degrees of outcomes
depending on the ultimate needs of your particular child. Whether you are dealing
with behavioral issues, drug abuse, alcohol abuse or depression, there is help for
your teenager. Don’t wait. Get educated.
Here are the various options for troubled teen centers of help and care:
Therapeutic Wilderness Programs: These programs use the natural world
to engage with young people utilizing the Earth as a teacher of life lessons.
Encourages youth to discover their strengths, weaknesses and opportunities
for change through interactions with nature. Wilderness therapy for young
people can include vegetable gardening, farming and animal care, camping or
outdoors sporting activities like rock climbing.
Boot Camps: This is a demanding atmosphere that engages teens by way of
serious power struggles, breakdowns achieved through rigorous schedules,
and compliance achieved through demanding tasks. Most often boot camps
are challenging both physically and mentally. They’re often an alternative to
juvenile detention centers.
Military Camps: Similar to boot camps, military camps for youth are
centered on rigorous physical activity and mental degradation of wayward
young people. These camps demand unequivocal respect and immense
amounts of responsibility. They are rigid and unrelenting in their aim at
breaking down a teen with destructive attitudes.
Adolescent Treatment Centers: These centers tend to focus on psychological and substance-abuse issues in young people. They’re situated in places that allow treatment to be ongoing as opposed to day programs or one-hour counseling sessions that lack consistent, concentrated attention.
Boarding Schools: These act as an alternative to your troubled teen’s current school. Boarding schools offer an opportunity to achieve academic credit specifically for poorly behaved students. These types of academies can combine counseling or different therapy models to complement schoolwork so your teen doesn’t fall behind while getting treatment.
Rehab: Teens suffering from chemical dependencies like drugs, alcohol, prescription medication, glue sniffing, chemical snorting or other addictions get direct, clinical care in the rehab setting.
The unique offerings of each type of troubled teen program are as unique as your
beloved child. The same amount of care and concern needs to go into choosing
the right place for your son or daughter as when they were young and you made
decisions about car seats, schools, friends, food, rules, etc. Asking questions is
the best way to start searching for a location or program that will fit the needs of
your child. Is your daughter timid and depressed? Well, a military-type boot
camp might not be the best place for her. Does your son have outbursts of violent
aggression? Well, a rehabilitation center focused on addicts may not be the best
place for him. Consider your whole child; consider the entirety of the programs that
interest you and you’ll be on your way to helping heal your problem teen so they can
be a wonderful teen.