Teen Help Blog
What Are The Effects of Cyberbullying on Teens?
What are the effects of cyberbullying on teenage mental health? Research shares that nearly half of teens (46 percent) say they are online almost constantly -- which means they are more at risk for cyber-victimization. Unlike bullying in person which can be contained...
What Causes Teenage Mental Health Issues?
What can cause teenage mental health issues and how can you support your child that seems to be emotionally struggling? Since 2019 teen depression and anxiety has doubled, many experts blame the increase of screen-time as part of the cause. Is your teen...
Risks of Not Sending A Troubled Teen for Help
Does the thought of sending your troubled teen away scare you? As a parent, you thought you could fix everything -- or at least hire the right experts to get the help needed. Thoughts go through your mind, are you a failure as a parent? Why are your friend's kids so...
How To Choose A Therapeutic Boarding School
How to choose the right therapeutic boarding school or residential treatment center for your teen and family is very challenging. A simple online search of "therapeutic boarding schools" yields over three million results! Since 2001 we've been helping parents...
What Is The Purpose Of A Therapeutic Boarding School?
Parenting difficult teenagers is climbing today. Parents are searching for schools for troubled teens. What is the purpose of a therapeutic boarding school? We are facing a teenage mental health crisis, since 2020 teen depression and anxiety has doubled. Experts say...
Preventing Teenage Obesity
What are things you can do at home to prevent teenage obesity? Being overweight or obese can be defined as excessive or abnormal accumulation of weight that can be a risk to health. A body mass index (BMI) of more than 25 is considered overweight, and above 30 is...
My Teenager Refuses To Go To School
How can parents handle it when their teen refuses to go to school? Especially if you have a high school student that is only credits away from graduating, how can you convince them the importance of a diploma? This has become a very common problem with parents around...
How Behavior Modification Programs Help Troubled Teens
You have come to a place at home where your teen is out-of-control. Their behavior is unacceptable as they continue to defy your house rules, refuse to attend therapy to get help, you may have tried outpatient treatment that has failed. School is not working since...
What Is A Christian Therapeutic Boarding School
What is a Christian therapeutic boarding school? Are you parenting a troubled teenager that has drifted away from your family values and are concerned for their future? Are you considering a therapeutic boarding school with a Christian foundation? There is...
5 Benefits of Boarding Schools for Troubled Teens
Are you at your wit's end with your troubled teen? Asking yourself, "Can I kick my teenager out?" Have you reached a point where you feel like your entire family is being held hostage to your teen's behavior -- at any moment they could explode or do you fear for their...
5 Tips to Keep Teens Safe While Gaming
At some point in your child’s teenage years, they will play video games. It’s inevitable. Whether they are playing recreationally with friends, playing for entertainment alone or entering esports competitions, at some point, they will play video games. Today, video...
How Cell Phones Effect Teenagers Mental Health
A study from the Journal of Child Development found that cellphones can cause sleep problems in teens, which led to depression, anxiety and behavioral issues. Phones cause sleep problems because of the blue light they create. This blue light can suppress melatonin, a...
What Is the Success Rate of Therapeutic Boarding Schools
Why do people go to therapeutic boarding schools (TBS)? Are these residential treatment programs effective? Schools for troubled teens are designed to help students that are struggling through their adolescent years. Many are afflicted with emotional, social and/or...
Where Can I Send A Troubled Teenager?
Parenting a difficult teen can be more than challenging, it can drive you mad and the entire household becomes a warzone. You reach a point where you have exhausted your skills as a parent -- no matter how hard you try, your teenager becomes more rebellious and...
How to Help Your Teen Quit Vaping
Teen vaping has become an epidemic. Vaping has become a major concern for most parents today. If you’ve discovered that your teen is vaping, it’s only natural to feel a range of emotions. As an adult we understand the dangers and risks involved with vaping. But...
What is the Goal of Residential Treatment?
Making the decision to choose residential treatment for your problem teen is a major emotional and financial decision. One big question parents want to know is, what is the goal of residential treatment and why is it any different than getting help at home? When you...
Why Group Therapy Benefits Troubled Teens
How Group Therapy Can Help Your Struggling Teen Group therapy has several advantages, especially for young people. Being with others that are feeling at a loss, possibly withdrawn from their family and friends, can help them realize they're not alone in...
Why Do Teens Fail in School?
Is your smart teen failing in school? Underachieving? Not doing their homework? Finding out your smart teen has failing grades and may not be passing can be extremely stressful and frustrating. Failed classes lead to a lower GPA as well as may delay them graduating...
Five Ways to Teach Your Teen About Money
In a perfect world, money would always be abundant, and we could without having to worry about budgeting. Unfortunately, unless you're born into money or made a mint, that usually isn't the case. What's worse is that with the ever-increasing cost of living, even teens...
5 Signs of Teenage Substance Abuse
Is your teen doing drugs? What are the warning signs your teenager might be addicted to drugs? Whether it’s vaping, smoking marijuana or taking pills – more and more young people are self-medicating to ease stress, depression and anxiety. Substance abuse can also...
9 Ways to Prevent Teen Texting and Driving
As a parent of a teenager, you must be aware of how precious their phone is to them. Teens are always on their phones regardless of what they are doing. Whether it is studying, watching TV, or playing, it is becoming difficult for teens to leave their phones...
5 Tips to Keep Teens Safe From Drugs Online
Drug dealers have turned to the internet and social media apps like Snap Chat to find customers during the pandemic, causing youth drug deaths to soar. Social media is almost exclusively how teens and young adults are getting illicit pills now, and about 90% of these...
4 Ideas for Building a Sensory Room With Your Teen
Teens face plenty of trials as they approach adulthood. Every day they make choices about their future paths, navigate relationships, and experience new scenarios. These are all essential aspects of being a teen. Teens with sensory processing disorders (SPD)...
Top Ways Parents Can Help Teens Develop Healthy Teeth
There's no doubt that parents want the best for their kids, including good oral health. While it's ultimately up to the teen to brush and floss regularly, there are things parents can do to help them along. Check out these top ways to promote dental health in your...
My Teen Is Refusing Therapy
What do you do if your teen is refusing to attend therapy? First understand you are not alone. You can feel powerless when you know your teen needs therapy, yet they refuse to go. You can feel powerless when you know your teen needs therapy, yet they refuse to go....
How to Motivate My Lazy Teenager
From teenagers to young adults, more parents are complaining about their child's lack of motivation, underachieving and under-performing -- especially when it pertains to their schoolwork. Laziness has become the new normal for some teens and it's extremely...
Does Your Teen Want to Drop Out of School?
Reasons Teens Want to Quit School More and more parents are facing either their teenager wanting to drop out of school or their young adult wanting to quit college. In some situations it can start as early as middle school -- your young teen will start skipping...
How Music Therapy Heals Troubled Teens
Music therapy helps teenage mental health. From stress relief and self-soothing to emotion regulation and physiological benefits, music plays a powerful role in mental health and well-being for many people. For teens, music often takes on an even greater...
Why Short Talks Build Strong Relationships
Did you know that spending 15 minutes a day listening and talking with your child can help build the foundation for a strong relationship and provide support that he/she can come to you with a problem? Whether they are being pressured by peers to try drugs or harassed...
How to Deal With An Explosive Teen
Does your teens' anger lead to explosive behavior? If your family walks on eggshells to avoid triggering an explosive, unpredictable, sometimes violent reaction from your teen, it's possible they may be suffering with Intermittent Explosive Disorder. ...
Why Horticulture Therapy Benefits a Teen’s Mental Health
Many studies have been made on how gardening can positively influence the physical and mental wellness of gardeners, especially those that are struggling in life. Therapeutic gardening (also know as horticulture therapy) for teens has specifically shown great promise...
My Teen is Sexting and Sending Inappropriate Images
"I caught my teen posting sexual images!" In a JAMA Pediatrics study, sexting has become more common among adolescents. Of particular concern, the researchers say, is that about 12 percent of sexts were forwarded without consent, which they called “troubling.” When...
Things to Know If You’re Teen Has a Disability
Ways to know if your teen has a disability. If you're the parent of a teen with a disability, there are some things you need to know. The teenage years can be difficult for any child, but they can be especially challenging for kids who have to deal with a disability...
My Teen Needs Social Skills
Is your teen socially awkward? Does your teen need social skills? Maybe they have spent so much time digitally connected -- texting rather than in-person interaction. Having the ability to connect and chat via social media platforms like Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok...
Why Teens Are Secretive About Their Online Lives
Is your teen secretive about their online life? Research shares that two thirds of teens surveyed say they have engaged in at least one risky behavior online and have experienced some form of cyberbullying. Fifteen percent say they have met strangers online, while 1...
How to Connect With My Withdrawn Teen
Has your teen withdrawn from their friends and even your family? Some teens withdraw from their family if they feel misunderstood or unaccepted. In this case, the family is at risk of a broken relationship. Withdrawal can also be a sign of mental illness, trauma, or...
How to Stop Teen Sibling Conflict
Why does my teen hate their sibling? Parents must be able to distinguish between healthy sibling conflict and damaging abuse. Sibling rivalry is a normal, and mostly harmless, part of growing up. Siblings often compete without anyone getting hurt. These sometimes...
How to Handle Teen Destructive Behavior
Is your teen's destructive behavior breaking your family? Maybe you removed their smartphone, possibly shut-down the gaming devices -- or told them they couldn't attend a party and suddenly your home becomes a warzone. Parents today feel like they are walking on...
How to Support Your Teen Battling Depression
Depression is a serious illness. Helping your teen learn coping skills through depression is imperative. Those who suffer from it may lose interest in the activities that mattered most to them in the past, experience deep and constant sadness, and find it hard to stay...
Why Behavioral Therapy Can Help Your Teen
How behavior therapy can help your troubled teen? Behavioral therapy is an umbrella term for types of therapy that treat mental health disorders. This form of therapy looks to identify and help change potentially self-destructive or unhealthy behaviors. It’s based on...
Ways to Improve Your Teen’s Mental Health
4 Health and Wellbeing Tips to Help Your Teen's Mental Health It is important that throughout life we take the time to look after both our minds and our bodies. There are many helpful tips and tricks out there that can help maintain your health and well-being...
Smile and Succeed Book for Teens
A Crash Course in Face-to-Face Communication Is your teen prepared for the real world of personal communication? Set your kids up to succeed with the lost art of social and job skills. "Smile & Succeed for Teens is a fantastic resource to help teens...
How to Prevent Teen Internet Addiction
"My teen is addicted to the internet!" How many parents struggle with their teen's addiction to their cell-phone (internet) and specifically social media platforms? This is a growing concern not only in families, but with educators and therapists. Excess screen-time...
ReThink the Internet
How to Make the Digital World a Lot Less Sucky A new book, ReThink the Internet, by Trisha Prabhu is a must have (read) for all tweens and teens! Yes, parents absolutely should read it too! It's time to: Stop hate. Promote Kindness. Be an...
When Your Teen Doesn’t Want To Go To a Boarding School
Will your teen hate you if you send them to boarding school? Let's face it, if you're reading this it's likely you've been struggling with your teenager for awhile and now considering a therapeutic boarding school. This is not an easy decision to come to -- it means...
Where Do Bullies Learn to Be So Mean?
Could Your Teen Be a Bully? Imagine being a fly on the wall in your daughter’s elementary school class. The teacher introduces a new boy who has just moved into town and then asks the kids to welcome him to the class. It’s obvious that he’s uncomfortable. After...
What Is Wilderness Therapy?
Does Your Troubled Teen Need Wilderness Therapy? What is wilderness therapy? Wilderness therapy is an experiential form of therapy that combines outdoor experiences and therapy sessions. If you hired an educational consultant that you paid thousands of dollars for,...
How to Learn About Your Teen’s Online Life
The internet is evolving on a daily basis, wait, it's actually changing minute by minute, and it can be a perfect excuse for parents to say -- they simply can't keep up! What they are forgetting is, for parents, staying in touch with technology updates and your teen's...
How to Help Your Teen With Panic Attacks
Does your teen suffer with panic attacks? Panic disorder is an anxiety disorder that causes a person’s brain to suddenly go into fight-or-flight mode at any given moment, even though there’s no actual threat or danger. Most teens experience moments of...
What Is a Therapeutic Boarding School?
Does my teen need a therapeutic boarding school? Has your struggling teen been referred to a therapeutic boarding school? Maybe you have exhausted your local resources -- therapy at home isn't working, you have tried outpatient treatment that failed? A short hospital...