Category Archive: Professionals

Adolescents who are in recovery for substance abuse face many challenges when they step down from inpatient treatment and return home. The structure they are used to during inpatient treatment helps them stay on track by providing a controlled environment. […]

Adolescents aren’t usually thrilled to be in treatment for substance abuse. Many adolescents don’t even believe they have a problem — it’s their parents who want them to get sober. If the adolescent isn’t keen on the idea of recovery, […]

Adolescents who are in the early stages of recovery from substance abuse often have a hard time envisioning a future without substances. Up until this point, most of their social life has probably come from engaging in substance use. They […]

Adults, especially parents, often act as enablers for an adolescent’s substance abuse. Although they mean well, adults close to adolescents who engage in self-destructive behaviors often have trouble understanding where supporting ends and enabling begins. As the professional, you have […]

An adolescent’s successful recovery from substance abuse must include both structure and support. These things help to focus on the problem (mental illness and trauma) and the solution the adolescent is using to cope (substance abuse). Both structure and support […]

Setting a successful tone for your adolescent client’s recovery from substance abuse is crucial. It’s not uncommon for adolescents to be skeptical about treatment. Many believe that they don’t have a problem and that their parents are just overreacting. This […]

  Experiential therapy recreates experiences that bring subconscious feelings, urges, or behaviors into a person’s conscious awareness. It’s hard to create a formal definition of experiential therapy because so many therapeutic methods can be used. There are a lot of […]

  Dealing with children in addiction recovery can be tricky. Their motivations may lie in the wrong places, or they may have no motivation whatsoever. Many youths do not see their drug use as an issue and may be in […]

Mindfulness has been used for millennia to foster self-awareness. The idea of mindfulness is that recognizing internal and external influences on negative emotions and behaviors gives a person the tools to deal with them rationally. There is an increased interest […]

Mindfulness-based behavioral therapies have become increasingly popular in the U.S. school system over the past decade. Many of these programs use the concepts of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). Mindfulness is the practice of becoming aware of internal or external situations […]