Blog

By: Dr. Madolyn Liebing, Licensed Psychologist and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist

Currently there are some disturbing trends in how adolescents experience the difficult transition from childhood to adulthood. Adolescence is typically a turbulent time in everyone's life. The anchors of parents and family often fade into the background as the teens' status with peers becomes the gauge for testing her/his adequacy and overall "OKness." As a result, teens are particularly susceptible to negative peers, and find themselves being pulled away from healthy life-style choices into dangerous patterns of behavior by negative peers.

Traditionally adolescence has always been a stressful time, but today the severity and intensity of the problems seem to be ratcheting up... increasing the level of dangerousness for both the teen and our society as a whole. Serious drug addiction, gang participation, eating disorders, self-mutilation, dangerous sexual experimentation, suicide ideation, pornography, violence, and school shootings are increasing and make parenting teens as hazardous as navigating a minefield. Additionally, the increased affluence of the middle and upper class over the past 30 years has in many ways increased the susceptibility of teens to be diverted from a clear, healthy pathway to adulthood merely because of increased opportunity for exploration, which allows for both good and bad choices.

While increased wealth and material possessions allow modern parents to provide diverse opportunities for their children, it also increases entitlement and the expectation of getting something for nothing. Many parents complain that they can't get their son to do the dishes, or their daughter to clean her room. Simple chores become a source of family conflict and often result in the parent doing it herself because it is easier than getting her teenager to do it. The result is more entitlement and less effort by the teen.

Because we are willing to spend money on our children in an effort to give them every opportunity for growth and development, we have in fact created a growing generation of teens and young adults who don't appreciate the opulence they live in, or the people who have provided it for them. They do not know how to work, don't get to see the results of their efforts, and don't know how to delay gratification so that they have to earn what they receive. They feel that they "deserve" to have the newest video game, the best car, the fanciest house, the most expensive item on the menu, and the designer clothes. They don't realize that they have all these things because their parents were willing to work hard, gain an education, save money, and budget it well so that they could provide for the children they love. Thus, we are many ways loving our children to death.

Currently many parents are using wilderness therapy programs or therapeutic boarding schools to help stop their teens' harmful behaviors such as drug use and truancy. Wilderness therapy programs are among the most powerful tools in brief treatment. However, these programs often have a high daily cost, and there are always risks associated with wilderness programs. Recently parents and state agencies have taken a closer look at the safety factors involved in taking a troubled teen into the wilderness. Also the teens returning from wilderness programs often have a difficult time re-integrating into the high-speed noisy modern world, and although they make major changes in the wilderness, they have a hard time maintaining the changes in their old neighborhoods and schools. Also they may have more serious issues with substance abuse, emotional problems, or behavior difficulties that require a longer intervention.

Thus, the therapeutic boarding school has often become the intervention of choice. This venue allows for longer treatment, more family therapy, and a strong educational background that helps the teen recover lost credits and missed academic skills. However, these programs are extremely expensive, not just because of the high daily cost (which is typically less than the wilderness programs), but because of the length of stay which is usually between nine months and a year in length. The cost can be devastating to mid-income families and even taxing on higher incomes. For the lower income families the cost is impossible and the out-of-control behavior of their teens often results in their children entering the juvenile justice system.

The Journey has been offering a variety of effective interventions for adolescents through state funded programs for the past eight years. Programs have included substance abuse treatment, behavioral interventions, and mental health treatment for both male and female adolescents in both short-term programs for early intervention, and longer programs for more severe problems. To date, more than 1000 teens have been treated in one or more of The Journey programs. Currently The Journey is offering a 50-Day full service wilderness therapy program, which includes a full psychological examination to help parents determine the specific treatments needs of their teen. At the end of the wilderness program, qualified mental health professionals will help you determine the continuing needs of your teen. In an effort to make help more affordable for lower income families, scholarships and/or reduced rates can be requested.