Teen Counseling

Teen Counseling with Suffolk DBT

“Even as kids reach adolescence, they need more than ever for us to watch over them. Adolescence is not about letting go. It’s about hanging on during a very bumpy ride.”

Does your teenager seem to be struggling? Do you think that teen counseling on Long Island would be the best solution? For most parents of the teens who end up in DBT, they have gone to many therapists and nothing seemed to change. Often times the therapist would feel that they couldn’t help the child and the child felt the therapist wasn’t helping them. They were most likely correct in their observations. The therapists at Suffolk DBT J.L., LCSW really “get” these kids. The therapists have a way of helping them feel accepted in treatment and at the same time teach them a new way to manage their lives. By doing this, they begin to learn how to become the best version of themselves.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, In 2014, an estimated 2.8 million adolescents aged 12 to 17 in the United States had at least one major depressive episode. DBT is a structured program that offers hope to adolescents and their families. It is specifically for teens with emotional difficulty, some of whom have suicidal ideation and self-harm behaviors. Most often they present as depressed, anxious, impulsive, and feeling fairly hopeless.

Adolescence is a time of change and is often a rocky road for children and their families. Dialectical Behavior Therapy is a comprehensive treatment that has been shown to be effective in:

• Decreasing frequency and length of hospitalizations
• Learning more effective ways of coping with emotions
• Increasing skills in creating and maintaining healthy relationships
• Decreasing the impact of past trauma that has a current impact on one’s life
• Increasing self-acceptance and respect
• Developing awareness of urges, thoughts, emotions, and actions
• Increasing the ability to accept being an emotionally sensitive child and learning how to manage this

DBT Can Be Helpful for:

• Families facing conflict
• Adolescents who have difficulty regulating their emotions
• Adolescents involved in impulsive, self-destructive behavior
• Adolescents engaging in self-harm or having suicidal thoughts
• Adolescents with ADHD, ADD, High-Functioning Autism, Anxiety and Mood Disorders, Eating Disorders, OCD
• Adolescents who have experienced many hospitalizations
• Parents and adolescents who feel helpless that things may not get better and face tomorrow with frustration, dread, and lack of hope

For more information on DBT for children visit KidsInTheHouse.com

Our Program Includes:

Weekly Individual Therapy

• Diary Card: This is a card on which you track the intensity of your emotions and whether you have had urges to act on a target behavior, engaged in any target behaviors, or used DBT skills to help get through the week. This card is filled out once a day and brought to your individual therapy to guide the therapy session.

• Phone Coaching: The opportunity to call your therapist in a crisis if you are having difficulty applying skills.

Weekly Skills Group

Meet with other teenagers who are similar and who want to improve their lives or are having difficulty doing so. The groups are positive and focused on acceptance and change. They are skills based. You will learn Mindfulness, Distress Tolerance, Emotion Regulation, Interpersonal Effectiveness, and the Middle Path.

Parent Group

• Parents meet weekly to learn and apply the same skills their children are learning.

To learn more about how Suffolk DBT can help, fill out our contact form or give us a call at  631-828-2264 today.