Parents who are just beginning to explore treatment options for their troubled teen may have a difficult time determining what are the differences between a residential treatment center and regular therapy. The two have similarities but overall, serve slightly different purposes which we wanted to highlight.

Key Points Of Regular Therapy For Troubled Teens

When attending regular therapy, your teen will remain at home with the family. Depending on how well your teen takes to therapy and what kind of therapy they are engaging in, this may affect how effective the therapy is for them. Some of the key points regular therapy tries to accomplish with troubled teens are:

• Address and attempt to correct outward negative behaviors
• Have your teen open up concerning the root cause of their actions
• Behavior modification if receiving cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which not all regular therapists are trained to do
• Aims for the teen to guide the sessions

The difficulty with regular therapy is that there is very little incentive for teens to be open enough to benefit from it. It makes regular therapy less effective when dealing with resistant troubled teens.

Focuses Of Troubled Teen Residential Treatment Centers

When it comes to deeply embedded problems, regular therapy may not be enough to reach your teenager. Because of this, residential treatment centers include the key points of regular therapy and enfold them into the focuses of troubled teen residential treatment to make them more effective. Some of the enhanced focuses are:

• Your teen’s whole schedule compliment’s their therapy
• Therapist has specific emphasis in working with troubled teens and can more effectively direct therapeutic sessions
• Cognitive behavioral therapy to help correct negative habits is a common part of therapy in residential treatment centers
• Bringing the family together with family therapy sessions

Instead of therapy being a side project to your teen, residential treatment allows for full immersion in the therapeutic process. This can help your teen shake negative behaviors that regular therapy couldn’t touch.

Which Type Of Therapeutic Treatment Is Right For Your Teen?

It is hard to definitively say which type of therapeutic treatment is right for your child. Each individual has their own unique circumstances to consider which can and should influence your decision.

If you need help sorting out what your teen needs, work with one of our placement advisors. At no cost to you, we help you assess what course of action will help your child best.