How to find a summer programs for my troubled teen on the East Coast? Parenting difficult teenagers has become an epidemic across the country.
Many teens today have been experiencing depression, anxiety, under-performing in school if not completely failing classes — we’ve even witnessed a rise in student’s that were once honor roll students that are now barely passing.
Internet and cell phone addiction has been a major contributing factor to young people’s mental wellness.
-Rebellious, defiance, rage?
-Entitled? Backtalk, nasty attitude, disrespectful?
-Drifted from family values?
-Cell phone addiction, video gaming?
-Failed in school or poor academic performance?
-Hanging with a negative peer group?
-Vaping or experimenting with drugs or alcohol?
-Overall started making bad choices?
How can a summer program help?
There are therapeutic summer programs that are designed to give families a good foundation of what they are facing with their teen’s behavior. It can give immediate support and most will offer you an assessment or psychiatric evaluation to give you a determination of the treatment plan your child may require (either in the short-term or long-term).
This is a digital detox time when your teen can learn coping skills to manage their feelings of anxiety, anger and even rage when not having their cell-phone or gaming device. It also helps them develop a healthy and balanced relationship with technology. As we know, the internet is only evolving — it’s imperative our children learn to manage their screen-time effectively.
Summer camps dealing with defiance especially when our teen is removed from their phone, will help them develop coping skills through anger and stress management classes as well as positive peer influence and in many instances – behavior therapy including animal assisted therapy, music therapy and art therapy and more.
Summer programs can be an excellent time to give your teenager a boost of self-esteem as well as helping them with grade recovery if they have been underachieving during the school year.
Help for teens in summer programs include:
- Grade recovery
- Learning coping skills
- Anger and stress management
- Peer relationships offline
- SAT prep classes
- Self-esteem building (helps them make better choices)
- Overall healthy relationship with their devices
Summer Programs vs Residential Treatment Centers or Therapeutic Boarding Schools
In some situations, maybe your teen may only need a summer boost, depending on the issues they are facing. It is important to realize if you have had behavior issues for over a year, it didn’t take 4-6 weeks to get to where you are, it’s unlikely the negative behavior will change with a short-term summer program.
However, since making the decision to leap into a residential treatment center or therapeutic boarding school is not only an emotional one, it’s also very expensive — starting with a summer program can sometimes be a way to determine if your teen is a fit for the longer-term program.
After attending a summer program, you can determine the following:
1. They come home and go back to school in the fall.
2. They continue with the therapeutic boarding school educational program.
3. They come home, go back to school and things don’t go so well, you know that they can go back to that program and finish it.
Summer programs can be a win-win situation if you select the right one. The positive side of using a therapeutic summer program that is part of a therapeutic boarding school is so your child doesn’t have to switch facilities if you determine they need longer care.
Some parents feel more comfortable committing to a shorter version of a therapeutic program rather than jumping into a full 6-9-12 month school which is completely understandable. It can give them an opportunity to evaluate the program, therapists and staff.
This can also be helpful if your child successfully completes the summer session, however months later starts to stumble in your home setting and you determine they need to go back. Therapeutic schools offer open enrollment all year round so they would be able to be there to assist you.
In some situations a solid 45-90-day program has been exactly what a student needed to get them back on the right path academically or at least give the family a sense of direction and a balanced home life.
Read: 5 Benefits of Therapeutic Boarding Schools.
Read: How Cyberbullying Effects Mental Health.
Read: Does Your Teen Want to Drop Out of School?
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Contact us today for summer resources. We have helped many families since 2001 on the East Coast with their troubled teens.
