Teen Grief and Loss Treatment

At Paradigm Treatment teens and young adults come to us with different backgrounds, symptoms, interests, and struggles. Our individual treatment approach allows us to consider and treat each teen as an individual person, and to create a therapeutic treatment plan that best addresses her or him to heal, to recover, and to grow. Our Teen Grief and Loss Treatment is a program designed for teens that have experienced the loss of a loved one or another traumatic event and are suffering from extreme, debilitating grief.

While these kinds of traumatic experiences are always difficult and grieving is a healthy, normal part of healing, sometimes teens can get “stuck” in the grief experience, for a period of time that is excessive. Teen Grief and Loss Treatment helps them from move on and grow past this.

What Is Grief and Loss Treatment for Teens?

Grief and loss treatment for teens and young adults is a therapeutic approach to helping young people understand and manage the emotions they have about a significant loss in their life. Grief and loss treatment also seeks to help cope with the overwhelming emotions related to experiencing traumatic events, such as a natural disaster, school shooting, sexual abuse, or physical abuse.

Treatment typically involves forms of talk therapy, education, support groups, and family therapy. It’s important to process emotions relating to grief or a loss and learn to move forward in the grieving process. With emotional support and coping strategies that teens and young adults learn in grief counseling, they can grow past trauma and live a happier life.

Causes of Grief for Teens

There are many potential causes for grief in a young person’s life and it’s often impossible to prepare for these circumstances. Death of a loved one, including family members, a pet, friends, or peers is the most common cause for grief in teens. Divorce can feel like a major loss in a child’s life or they may experience grief when transitioning from adolescence, which is another major change in their life.

If they experience difficulties such as trouble in school or a chronic illness, a teen may feel hopeless and stress over these challenges. Another stressful situation that causes grief in teens and young adults is trauma and abuse. A traumatic event or experiencing physical and/or sexual abuse can cause overwhelming emotions such as anger, guilt, and grief.

Symptoms of Grief in Teens

A grieving teen may often feel somewhat paralyzed, losing the ability to function in their everyday responsibilities, such as school and activities. It’s also common for teens to shut down emotionally and withdraw from friends and family, which often only exacerbates the pain they’re already feeling.

Some of the other symptoms teens who seek Teen Grief Therapy often experience include: insomnia, nightmares, anger, guilt, anxiety, indecision, inability to concentrate, depression, apathy, hopelessness, and substance abuse struggles.

It’s important to know, sometimes teens can become stuck in a period of depressive grief and not necessarily recognize they need help. Sometimes teens assume that this kind of sadness is inevitable and that it’s commonplace that it won’t get better. If this is the case for you or a loved one you know, we want you to know that this isn’t true and that it’s very possible to get help in processing grief in a healthy way that allows you to move forward. This is especially important for younger children, who can miss out on important developmental experiences if they become stuck in a period of grief for too long.

How To Recognize Grief

Knowing how to recognize teenage grief is extremely helpful in getting help for teens struggling with a loss. Some grief reactions include:

• Engaging in self-destructive behaviors or risky behaviors
• Struggling academically
• Withdrawing from family and friends
• Experiencing a death in the family
• Surviving a traumatic event
• Developing a substance use disorder
• Having frequent feelings of anger or sadness

If you recognize any of these warning signs in yourself, a family member, or peers, you can reach out to Paradigm Treatment for professional help.

Types of Grief and Loss Treatments

In our Teen Grief and Loss Treatment programs, we work with teens to help them to fully process their loss and grief on the deepest level possible. It’s especially important to help teens address any aspects of the loss or experience that have gone unaddressed or avoided until this time and therefore continues to keep teens stuck in this stage.

We do deeper introspective work with teens in both individual and group therapy sessions, as we help them to closely observe and recognize the thoughts and feelings that are present.

Individual Therapy

Individual therapy can be the best way to help teens cope with grief. We offer grief counseling so that teenagers and young adults can express feelings and learn to properly cope with their emotions. Individual therapy approaches for treating grief are Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), and experiential therapies like Equine-assisted therapy.

Individual therapy is very effective in treating mental illness that may occur as a result of grief or may contribute to a teen’s struggle with grief and loss. Treatments like CBT and DBT help patients understand emotions relating to grief or loss, increase self-awareness, and learn healthy coping skills.

Group Therapy

At Paradigm, we also provide numerous group sessions for teens. In group therapy, teens and young adults work on coping skills and learn more about managing grief in their daily life. Doing grief counseling with a group can help build a support system and peer relationships. These relationships can reduce feelings of loneliness, anger, depression, and general pain associated with dealing with a loss.

Taking part in group activities can alleviate stress and play a critical role in the grieving process. Experiential therapies that are available in group settings, enable people to try new things and potentially pick up a new hobby. For example, teens may find healing in creating art during art therapy. Creating art is also a useful way to express feelings.

Support Groups

We also offer numerous support programs to encourage teens’ existing strengths, support physical health, and add new practices that will benefit teens’ quality of life.

Coping Skills for Grief and Loss

Learning healthy ways to cope with grief and loss is a core part of our treatment program. There are many different emotions teens may experience along with their grief or in response to a loss. While many teens develop their own way of managing emotions, getting professional help for grief and loss will provide long-term relief.

Engaging in relaxation techniques is a very useful skill to help cope with grief. Techniques such as meditation reduce stress and may help address anger or guilt that a person feels as a result of a loss. Teens in a grief and loss treatment program may learn others skills such as how to keep a daily journal or take part in self-care practices.

Talking about emotions is one of the most important coping skills to learn and it can be useful in managing other issues, such as mental illness or substance abuse.

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