Solstice East on Why Family Connections Should Always Be the Center of Teen Treatment

At Solstice East, we know a family-based approach is extremely important to the success of our students. Family needs to be involved in every step along the way, not only for accountability and communication but also to create a long-term path for healing.

Family therapy is the core of our approach. Parents and other family members are often surprised that we ask that they be actively involved in weekly sessions, frequent teleconferencing, support groups, and seminars. Your teen isn’t the only one who can change on this journey—here’s why that’s important.

Family Affects Everything About Us

Family members need to commit to helping their teenagers during these challenging years of their life. We know that’s not an easy process, especially when small changes seem impossible. One of the biggest goals of family therapy is to understand how families are interconnected.

Family therapy works to look deeply at the causes of serious dysfunction and the roadblocks that prevent behavioral change. The goal is not to lay the responsibility on a single person within a family unit, no matter what has happened in the past. Instead, this therapy seeks to understand the multiple causes of dysfunction that can arise from many different actions and attitudes from family members. Putting it simply, problems don’t exist in a vacuum. Those who want the very best for their children need to commit to understanding how they are interacting with their children and if those interactions can be adding to stress in the relationship.

While this kind of therapy is challenging, it can be immensely liberating for the teens at Solstice East and elsewhere. Understanding how their past, their environment, and the other people in their lives affect them can help individuals understand their own habits and actions more clearly. It can also help them deal with feelings of guilt and anger that may be keeping them from healing.

Multiple Approaches for Different Situations

Family therapy is innately adaptable, with a variety of types depending on the problems involved and specific family dynamics. Common options include:

Systemic: This therapy works to uncover the meanings behind behaviors from everyone in the family, including things they may not have communicated in the past or realized themselves.

Bowenian: This type of family therapy allows an individual to confide in the therapist as a third party when there are subjects they don’t want to involve other family members in at the time. It can be a helpful way for therapists to mediate reactions to family and past trauma.

Strategic: This is a homework-based approach that can be helpful when time is limited or when families want to dive deeper into work between family therapy sessions.

An Ongoing Life Plan After Solstice East

Family therapy also equips all connected family members with techniques, attitudes, and knowledge that help them maintain and improve relationships long after graduating from Solstice East. The goal isn’t just momentary change but a program that gives loved ones and family members the ability to create better communication and relationship habits they can use for the rest of their lives.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes