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PARENTING DEFIANT TEENS WITH MENTAL HEALTH AND SUBSTANCE USE ISSUES AT BASEPOINT
Parenting is hard. Parenting defiant teens with mental health and substance use issues can be even harder, especially in our fast-paced society. When kids start going to treatment at BasePoint Academy, it is often the first opportunity in quite some time for their parents to feel a sense of hope.
“Before finding treatment for their kids, families are often confused and scared,” says BasePoint Academy lead therapist India Bradley, LCSW. “They are highly concerned and don’t know where to turn.” Parents and other family members have many questions. “Is treatment appropriate or is it too much? What about medications? There is a lot of conflicting information out there and the mental health profession often only comes into the picture once they know they need help.”
Parents also often fear being blamed for their child’s condition or behavior. They wonder what they could have done differently—whether the crisis of their child is their fault. Once they work with BasePoint Academy, their outlook tends to improve.
India Bradley shares from her own experience what parents are going through. “They ask ‘What’s going to happen in group therapy? Do we need to do medication? What are the possible side effects?’ Some questions they hesitate to ask, fearing what we may think of them if they do.”
Bradley disclosed she had the same fears when her child needed help. “I had worked in this field, but I was still afraid that I did something wrong,” she remembers. “There was a big fear inside of me when my kid went to treatment. I was in pain when I felt I had to go to family sessions. I think a lot of parents feel that way.” Of course, along the way I trusted the process and knew my child receiving help was best regardless of how it impacted me”.
Bradley usually meets with families right at the start of treatment, and shares “A lot of the parents break down crying in the room, but I intend to provide space for them to feel safe and remind them that kids don’t come with an instruction manual. I assure them that whatever they did was the best they knew how to do and now they will get more information to do something different”.
COMMUNICATION AND PATIENCE
At BasePoint Academy, families meet with a therapist once a week during the first 4-5 weeks of treatment. “We talk about communication, how to express your feelings in front of other people appropriately,” explains Bradley. “We talk about what is needed in the home from parents- What they need from their child.”
After our teenage clients step down to intensive outpatient care, families have weekly check-ins with the BasePoint Academy team. “We talk about what’s going on, what’s going well at home,” says Bradley. “I usually start with what’s going well first, let’s make sure that we can see change and we don’t just focus on ‘problems’ because sometimes that gets so much in the way that we forget what is going well.”
She likes to tell parents to hold on to the good things they see. “I remind them that this is not linear and that they have to fall back sometimes to be able to use the skills they learned in treatment. It’s not going to be perfect every time.”
Bradley often compares the process to baseball or basketball: “Nobody hits it out of the park or makes a dunk every single time.” She utilizes a smart method to de-escalate confrontations in family therapy. “When we realize things are getting out of hand, they use a safe word. We like to make it as funny and ridiculous as possible so that everybody laughs and walks away but agrees on a time to come back. They have time to think about what they were saying, how they said it, and what they can do differently to make the conversation go better. They have to come back, though. You can’t walk away and not come back soon but we have to cool down first and then address it differently so that everyone can be understood and heard.”
Bradley reminds family members that most people “cannot hear past of what they see. If you have this angry outward appearance, they can’t hear the emotions behind your words. All they see is your aggressive body movements and the anger in that.”
In such a case, participants move away for about 30 minutes to think about what they look like to others, how they feel, and how they can express their feelings better when they come back. “I’ve had success with that with a lot of families where kids and parents were yelling and sometimes even throwing things,” she says. “One family used apple as their safe word and everybody started laughing when the mother got so mad and shouted ‘apple, apple, apple!’ They couldn’t believe she actually used it. When they came back, they were still laughing but they also talked about the errors they made and they wanted to do things better.”
Sometimes this process is so complicated that participants ask for more time. If a BasePoint Academy therapist is available, we will allow additional sessions if appropriate. “Most therapists will gladly make that happen,” says Bradley. “We are very passionate about our kids and their families.”
At BasePoint Academy, we understand how vital family is to our teenage clients and how vital a strong home base is for each one of our kids. “We’re compassionate and understanding,” says Bradley. “We help our families to know how important they are to their kids and the kids understand how important their families are to them and we give them the space to be vulnerable and we offer compassion consistently. Our therapists really connect with the families to make them understand we are here for them—we don’t judge. Nine times out of ten we walk away at discharge saying ‘I’m going to miss that family’ because we connect so well with our families.”
COMPASSION. EXPERIENCE. VISION.
Our dedicated team is defined by their wealth of knowledge and field expertise, specializing in teen psychiatry, teenage therapy, and practical insights into the adolescent experience. Utilizing cutting-edge techniques and evidence-based treatment modalities, we are committed to guiding teens on a safe journey toward healing and recovery.
We proudly serve communities in and around Dallas, TX, including Arlington, Forney, McKinney, and many more. Our intensive outpatient program (IOP) in Dallas and partial hospitalization program (PHP) are tailored to meet the specific mental health challenges teens face today, offering a unique approach to the complex and multifaceted teen experience.
In Dallas, TX, and beyond, our services like depression treatment for teens, teen trauma treatment, and anger management for teens near you are expertly crafted to support adolescents. We offer a complimentary mental health assessment with a licensed clinician to determine the appropriate level of care, whether it’s IOP for teens or other therapy options. We also provide information on the costs of teenage therapy, IOP with insurance in Texas, outpatient mental health, and partial hospitalization programs.
For those seeking teen therapy in Dallas, our team includes experienced teen therapists and counselors. We also offer support in navigating insurance coverage, including UMR, Aetna, United Healthcare, Cigna, and Blue Cross Blue Shield, for ADHD testing and other services. Discover how we can assist your family in finding the right path to mental wellness and support.
Call us to schedule a complimentary same-day assessment at (469) 629-6355 or complete our inquiry form.
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