By: Jason Maxwell
Submitted: 2010-10-07 05:18:12 | Word Count: 443
Therapeutic boarding schools are effective for troubled teens because they are placed in an environment where they have the same experiences with other teens. It takes into account the concept of group therapy wherein they have a common denominator.
Kids will be under the care of school counselors so that their immediate needs are addressed right away. The problem why these teens are troubled is because of their environment. They are probably undergoing changes in their families like divorce. Or perhaps a loved had just died and they are adjusting to the loss.
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Actually any change in their environment is considered as stress. This includes good events as well as bad events. Good events can also be stressors in reality though we are made to believe that only bad events can be considered stressors. Having a new car, for example, is already considered stress because it already deviate from the normal day to day life of a person. How much more when the stress is being caused by a new parent, or instance?
Being placed in a group of people which are of the same age bracket and having the same problems will encourage them to open up. You have heard of the success of support groups like alcoholics anonymous. That is because of the common experience that these group of people have undergone.
One of the common mistakes of counselors is trying to solve a young persons problem before the problem is fully understood. Patience is the key since it takes time to unwrap the salient features of a teenagers problem. Like a complex jigsaw puzzle with hundreds of interlocking pieces, a young persons trouble cannot be solved in a matter of minutes.
An effective counselor never jumps to conclusions. Zeroing in on key issues in a session or two isn't easy. Effective counselors are continually asking themselves if there is something else they might be missing.
In the beginning stages, a counselor is often afraid of silence. They feel a need to fill in the quiet gaps of communication. However, silence is not a signal that the counselor needs to say something. Silence is not a sign of doing something wrong. When it is apparent that the adolescents wheels of thought and feeling are turning, allow the process to happen without interruption. When they are silent, they are doing their most important therapeutic work. Become comfortable with the silence by maintaining eye contact with the young person.
