Trauma occurs when a person’s brain is unable to process a harmful, frightening experience. In adolescents and teens, this can lead to a range of harmful coping mechanisms and mental health concerns. Trauma therapy from Beyond Healthcare can be highly effective at helping your son or daughter overcome those challenges. Working through a traumatic experience in a safe space with a highly-qualified therapist allows adolescents and adolescents to process the experience in a healthy way. If you believe your daughter or son may have experienced trauma, Beyond Healthcare in Toledo offers an excellent trauma therapy program. Contact us at 833.698.0453 to learn more.

When Is Trauma Therapy Necessary?

Negative experiences are part of life; we experience them, process them, and move on. However, a traumatic experience cannot be understood and processed by the brain. This makes it difficult for people to move on. Even if a traumatic experience is not at the forefront of a person’s mind, it still affects their thinking, behavior, and relationships. Most commonly, trauma occurs when a person experiences or witnesses significant events such as natural disasters, the loss of a loved one, domestic violence, or some type of abuse.

The Harmful Effects of Unhealed Trauma

Unhealed trauma in a person’s past often causes people to react in inappropriate ways when they experience an emotion they experienced during the traumatic event. That may include confidence problems, anxiety, depression, and even flashbacks years later. Some teens may not talk about what’s happened, leading to internalizing the problem. Over time, the symptoms of that trauma may start to become obvious such as:

• Shutting down emotionally
• Isolating from family
• Acting out
• Substance use
• Self-confidence problems 
• Feeling anxious or depressed
• A decline in academic performance

Over the long term, trauma can lead to problems with relationships and managing stress. It may lead to the development of mental health disorders as well, such as depression and anxiety.

How Trauma Counseling Can Help

When an adolescent experiences trauma, working through it as soon as possible with a good Toledo adolescent therapist can play a big role in the long term. The compassionate mental health professionals at Beyond Healthcare will be happy to discuss the best ways to talk with your adolescent about trauma. Discuss what occurred, why it happened, and what it means to the adolescent. Let them know it was not their fault and that they are going to be okay. This may help an adolescent or teen to start recovering from what they experienced early on.

Sometimes that is not enough. In severe cases of trauma or significant events, it’s best to allow a professional to work closely with the adolescent to help them to express themselves and talk about what’s happened. Additionally, trauma therapy can help teens to see significant improvement in their ability to process what happened, enabling them to move beyond it. During treatment, an adolescent may learn how to:

• Understand what occurred and why
• Express their feelings about what occurred
• Explore therapies to help them work through it
• Learn to let go of the pain to ensure there’s no lasting outcome
• Create strategies for managing any mental health disorders present

Mental Health Services in Toledo, OH

It is through this type of therapy that an adolescent can find themselves in a better place, able to continue to grow and develop as they should.

It’s not easy to know when your son or daughter may need adolescent or teen mental health therapy. Yet, when they come in to talk to our counselors, we’ll offer insight and guidance. We’ll also help you to see how you can help your adolescent to thrive and do well even if they’ve experienced intense trauma. Some of the services we offer that can help with this include:

• Mental health assessment and diagnosis services
• Individual and group therapy
• Medication management services
• IOP and after-school programs
• Telehealth services

Explore Trauma Treatment Options with Our Team at Beyond Healthcare

Trauma treatment can make a big difference in an adolescent’s overall well-being over time. An investment in treatment is easier to obtain than you may expect. Beyond Healthcare accepts both Medicaid and private insurance. To learn more about Beyond Healthcare, reach out to our counselors at 833.698.0453 or connect with us online today.