REPOST: Does your teen need an intervention?

The challenges and changes that come with adolescence may cause teens to break and lose their way, and it may come to a point that professional treatment is necessary.  Here are some advice by parents for parents that would help guide your teens to stay on the right path.

An intervention is a formal gathering of friends and family members with the objective of convincing a loved one that he or she has a problem (usually addiction related) and needs to enter treatment for that problem.

Interventions involve each participant reading a letter about how much they love and care about the addicted individual, but how they personally have been hurt by the addicted individual’s actions. 

The goal is to establish a compassionate “united front” in order to get the addict to accept the necessity of treatment.

Most intervention specialists advise that interventions be limited to adults. But what happens when the person who needs treatment is a teenager who has been engaging in teen drug abuse?  

Image Source: www.intervene.drugfree.org

Intervening to Save Your Teen

One significant difference between adult addicts and teens is that, unless they have committed some legal infraction and been court-ordered to seek treatment, adults cannot be compelled to enter an addiction recovery program.

The vast majority of teens, on the other hand, are still in legal custody of their parents or guardians. This means that they can be placed into a program against their will.

But as every parent knows, the difference between “can” and “should” can be massive.

Though circumstances may necessitate that you force your teen into treatment, a better alternative is to get him or her to accept the need for help and enter treatment voluntarily. This may be accomplished via a family discussion or in the presence of a counselor or other professional. 

As with a more formal intervention, convincing your teen to accept the reality that he or she needs treatment can be a difficult, emotional process – but the effort can literally save your child’s life.

Image Source: www.interventionallies.com

Doing Your Homework

Before you can effectively talk to your teen about drug treatment, you first need to educate yourself about teen substance abuse, addiction and treatment options. Consulting with your family physician, your child’s guidance counselor or a local addiction recovery organization is a great first step.

Once you have a firm grasp on what your child has been doing – and what treatment options exist – you are prepared to make an informed decision about how to get your child the help he or she needs. Teen drug rehab opportunities can range from outpatient therapy through an extended stay in a residential program. 

As with all decisions related to your child’s healthcare, the goal isn’t just to identify the “best” program, but to find the program that best meets your teen’s specific needs.

Image Source: www.casayouthshelter.org

Talking to Your Teen about Drug Rehab

Once you and your spouse or partner have identified the best place for your teen, it’s time to intervene. Depending upon the nature of your relationship with your child, this conversation may or may not involve a trained  professional such as a therapist, counselor or board registered interventionist.

As is the case with an adult intervention, the goal of this conversation with your teen should be to establish the following three points:

1.  You love and care about your teen.

2.  Your teen’s substance abuse and/or addiction are damaging the entire family.

3.  Treatment is necessary – right now.

Prior to intervening with your teen, you should have made the necessary arrangements to have him or her admitted into the drug rehab program immediately after this conversation.

When Words Aren’t Enough

Hopefully you will be able to persuade your teen to accept both the necessity and inevitability of treatment – but if your every effort is met with resistance, then you may have to resort to more drastic measures.

In many cases, parents of recalcitrant teens contract with an adolescent transport service. These specialized organizations are expert in safely transporting young people who are resistant to the idea of treatment. 

If you believe that this may be the best option for your family, you should discuss this with the program you have selected prior to conducting the intervention. Many teen drug programs will accept young people who have not consented to treatment, while others require that the child enter of his or her own free will.

Regardless of what decisions you make regarding your teens drug rehab experience, the following principles are important to keep in mind:

1.  Educate yourself about both the problem and the range of treatment options

2.  Present a united front with your spouse or partner

3.  Give your child the opportunity to accept the necessity of treatment

4.  Emphasize that the decisions you are making are being made out of love, compassion and a genuine concern for your child’s future

5.  Consult or contract with professionals at any stage of the process where you feel that outside assistance will be beneficial to you, your child or your entire family.

A motto of six words—real ranch, real values, real change—sums up the underlying philosophy of Turn-About Ranch, a residential school and cattle ranch aiming to help troubled teens through traditional treatment models set in a ranch environment.  Check this website for more details.

REPOST: Therapy helps troubled teens rethink crime

A violent crime that rocked the University of Chicago back in 2007 prompted the institution to establish a center that will focus on the prevention of homicide. Now, the university’s Crime Lab has identified an "intervention that could help reduce violent crime." NPR’s Shankar Vedantam discusses the results of the research in the article below.

Late one night in November 2007, a student at the University of Chicago named Amadou Cisse was accosted by a young man named Demetrius Warren.

Warren demanded Cisse's backpack and water bottle — at the point of a .22-caliber gun. When the bag and bottle were not forthcoming — or not forthcoming quickly enough — Warren shot Cisse at point-blank range, killing him. 

Student Kahlil Quato fights tears as he speaks at a University of Chicago candlelight vigil in 2007. The service was held in remembrance of Amadou Cisse, a graduate student, who was shot to death at point-blank range. Image Source: www.npr.org

The 29-year-old Cisse was a month shy of completing his Ph.D. in chemistry. In 2011, Warren was sentenced to 120 years in prison.

The case spurred the University of Chicago to establish a center to study how to prevent homicide, using the tools of empirical science. Now, in a study issued by theNational Bureau of Economic Research, investigators from the university's Crime Lab say they have identified an intervention that could help reduce violent crime.

To understand the technique, first consider what happened that night in 2007. Jens Ludwig, director of the Crime Lab, says that the conventional ways we think about crime don't make much sense in this incident: Unlike the scenarios on TV crime shows such as The Sopranos and The Wire, where violence is usually premeditated and aimed at obtaining specific goals, Warren had little to gain by shooting Cisse, Ludwig says.

"If they thought about it for even one second," he says, "it's very hard to imagine that anyone would think it was a good idea to shoot someone at point-blank range in exchange for a book bag and a water bottle that would surely have a resale value of not more than a couple of dollars at best."

University of Chicago graduate student Amadou Cisse was shot and killed while walking near campus on Nov. 19, 2007. Image Source: www.npr.org

Another popular crime theory suggests that increasing the severity of prison sentences will deter crime. But Ludwig says the Warren case calls that theory into question, too. "Demetrius Warren was sentenced to 120 years in prison," Ludwig says. "It is very hard to imagine that at the time Demetrius Warren has this .22 stuck in the chest of Amadou Cisse, that Demetrius Warren is going to be more deterred by a 200-year prison sentence [than] a 120-year prison sentence."

Ludwig says the case prompted one of his colleagues, Harold Pollack, to look into every youth homicide in Chicago in a single year. The crime researcher conducted a "social autopsy" on every case, to understand how and why the murder occurred.

He found that homicide among young people in Chicago tends to happen much as it did with Cisse and Warren: A sudden altercation, hastily planned and poorly considered, has terrible consequences because one of the parties has a gun and decides to use it.

In response to such killings, some people call for tighter restrictions on gun availability. Others have called for more guns — on the grounds that armed victims might deter attackers. But the Chicago researchers decided to focus on another element of violent crime: the perpetrator's frame of mind.

Ludwig points again to the case involving Warren: The shooting occurred, Ludwig says, after a rapid escalation of a dispute.

"Demetrius Warren presumably just didn't even think at all," Ludwig said. "He has this automatic response. When the backpack and water bottle are not forthcoming quickly enough, [he thinks,] 'I am not going to be disrespected.' And then he pulls the trigger."

Ludwig says the Warren case matches what Pollack found in his study of other youth homicides in Chicago: "Most serious violent events are almost Seinfeldian in their origin — someone saying something stupid to someone else, and that escalating and basically turning into a tragedy because someone had a handgun in their waistband at the time."

The solution to the problem, Ludwig, Pollack and their colleagues surmised, might lie in getting kids to slow down and think about their actions. The researchers conducted a randomized controlled experiment to test their hypothesis. They had about 1,400 school kids in grades seven to 10, drawn from high-crime areas of Chicago, undergo a 30-week training course calledBecoming a Man. A similar group of students, also chosen at random, was tracked, but did not go through the course. At the end of the year, Ludwig said, researchers found 44 percent fewer arrests among the students who had been through the course.

Ludwig says the course was based on a kind of training called Cognitive Behavior Therapy — a mainstay in modern psychotherapy. The technique aims to get people to think about the way they think, and to recognize unconscious patterns of thought that produce unhappy life outcomes.

In one exercise, Ludwig says, the students were grouped into pairs, and one member of each pair was given a ball. The other was told to get the ball out of his partner's hand. This invariably led to a fight, Ludwig says, as the kids brawled over the ball. After watching the fight, the program leader would ask the student who was trying to get the ball a question: "Why didn't you ask the other kid to give you the rubber ball?"

None of the adolescents, Ludwig says, ever thought to ask their partners for the ball.

"The kids will say things like, 'Oh, if I would have asked, he would have thought I was a punk,' " Ludwig says. "Then the group leader will turn to the partner and ask, 'What would you have done had this other kid asked you to give him the rubber ball?' And usually this other kid will say, 'I would have just given him the rubber ball. What do I care?' "

The goal of such exercises, Ludwig explains, is to help the teens understand that their strong, negative reactions during confrontations are often based on what they falsely imagine is happening in other people's minds. Getting the students to put a more benign spin on what they imagined the other guy was thinking was key to helping them control their own impulsive behavior, Ludwig says. And the approach worked — at least for a while.

Unfortunately, within a year after the program ended, its effect seemed to fade. Teens in the group who had gone through the training went back to having the same arrest rates as kids who hadn't gone through the program. Ludwig says the researchers are still exploring how to help young people retain the powerful benefits of this sort of psychological training, as part of a range of efforts in Chicago to stem homicide.

Turn-About Ranch specializes in providing both traditional and nontraditional therapy methods for teens with issues on self-inflicted abuse, anger management, and the like. Learn more about the therapy sessions and other programs here.

Building self-esteem through accomplishment

In the past two decades, a healthy sense of self-esteem has been emphasized to support the well-rounded development of young people. While self-esteem was mistakenly seen as its own reward during the 90s, it is now understood by many educators and counselors as a desired effect of a child’s efforts rather than their cause.

Image source: sodahead.com

Self-esteem, it has been found, must be founded on concrete achievements. Students are supposed to feel good about their accomplishments. While a degree of confidence is needed to coax students into trying new things, praise should only be reserved for accomplishments; the more (and the better) they accomplish, the greater their rewards. The Washington Post even reports that too much unwarranted praise may make young people more dependent on outside feedback than self-started initiatives.

Image source: progressioncu.org

Today, more educators would rather encourage students to work for their praise and recognition and have them build self-esteem from there. The satisfaction gained from a job well done (and the drive to improve from a less than satisfactory one) is seen as a better contributor than a positive self-image to academic performance and mental and emotional development.

Image source: languagemusicandmore.wordpress.com

A combination of hard work, determination, a keen eye for mistakes and correcting them, and the ensuing satisfaction and praise of a job well done is one of the keys to holistic development, according to current pedagogical standards.

Turn-About Ranch is committed to helping troubled teens overcome behavioral issues through a combination of ranch responsibilities, animal-assisted therapy, and psychiatric therapy sessions. Visit this website for more information.

The truth about learning styles

Image Source: kidspot.com.au

The tenets of learning styles continue to be widely accepted by the educational system. Learning style proponents assert that individuals differ in regard to their modes of learning, such that people are separated into distinct types of intelligences identified by psychologist Howard Gardner.

However, a 2008 study discloses that the concept of learning styles is a myth. The researchers found no particular type of interaction between learning style and mode of instruction which is a precondition for corroborating the uses of learning styles in the general educational practice.

Image Source: psychology.about.com

Psychology professors Cedar Riener and Daniel Willingham also found that the concept is obscure, debunking in their article the common notion that students can be categorized into auditory, kinesthetic, and visual learners as previously proposed by Gardner. The authors contend that students’ preferences about how to learn make no difference when tested under controlled conditions. They affirm that “learning is equivalent whether students learn in the preferred mode or not.”

Image Source: ilsa-learning-styles.com

These contradictions provoke educators to rethink their instructional practices and urge them to investigate the potential of educational programs focused on the “universal learning style of the human mind” which, perhaps, forms the basis for the residential treatment programs of therapeutic boarding schools, such as Turn-About Ranch. Under the schema, students process information from a variety of methods instead of learning from a limited type of module. The specialized structure supports experiential learning which could be a good supplement to conventional instructional methods.


Turn-About Ranch concentrates on providing students with authentic experiences that promote academic and personal growth. Its programs feature regular therapy sessions set against the backdrop of a ranch environment. Go to this website to learn more about its innovative educational programs.

How equine therapy promotes focus and tactile skills in children with developmental disorder

Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD)—most notably Asperger’s syndrome and autism—hinder children from having normal verbal and non-verbal communication abilities, make them over-focus on a certain area of interest, and turn them clumsy and repetitive with their speech patterns. Medication is often used to alleviate the conditions, but is often taken only to control symptoms like hyperactivity or seizures. Thus far, there has been no known cure for these disorders yet.

Image Source: turnaboutranch.crchealth.com

Recent studies, however, reveal that animal-assisted therapy can be highly beneficial for children with PDD. Equine (horseback riding) therapy, for example, has shown to have positive effects on the physical, emotional, social, cognitive, behavioral, and educational skills of patients. The rhythmic motion of riding a horse helps kids to indirectly enhance their focusing senses, triggered primarily by the slow, deliberate, and relaxing movement of the animal.

Image Source: pathintl.org

Apart from providing rhythmic motion benefits, equine therapy also stimulates tactile senses. Patients get to feel the horse’s skin, mane, nose, and tail. Being able to distinguish the surface qualities of these animal parts, children are able to develop their verbal communication skills and interest in other physical objects.

As per research, introducing children to “animal friends” helps them relax and lower their stress. The playful nature of animals draw patients out of their shells, helping them become more relationally open to others.  

Image Source: pathintl.org

Turn-About Ranch is an adolescent treatment center in Utah that caters to the needs of troubled youth through equine therapy and other programs. Visit its official website for more information.

Tempering your temper: Reining in anger before it controls you

Image Source: comedyrants.com

Anger is a natural emotion. People feel it all the time, often when they would rather not. Of course, like most emotions, anger should be expressed as other emotions should (indeed, the American Psychological Association emphasizes how doing otherwise is harmful). With this in mind, people ought to let anger pass, or divert or express it in positive ways.

This emotion, unpleasant as it may be, is a natural response to threats and irritants, and leads to many heightened (though sometimes negative) feelings and behaviors, which in some cases can allow people to take up arms and defend themselves. A little anger in one’s life, therefore, is necessary in survival situations.

Image Source: tenaadam.com

However, while psychologists point out the dangers of bottling up anger, expressing anger through aggression only serves to heighten feelings of anger and do nothing for the well-being of the angry person. Moreover, such a mentality is often used as a license to cause harm to others, and can be detrimental to the mental health of the aggressor in the long run. There is a reason why Christian philosophers have named uncontrolled anger—wrath—a cardinal sin.

While it is true that anger is natural and not necessarily harmful, acting on it is often against laws, mores and traditions, and common sense. People should make it a habit to discover ways to channel anger in less aggressive or destructive ways. This pamphlet from the American Psychological Association provides more information on the matter.

Image Source: examiner.com

Turn-About Ranch specializes in providing both traditional and nontraditional therapy methods for teens with issues on self-inflicted abuse, anger management, and the like. Visit this page for more information.

Harnessing the healing power of human-animal bond

Humans and animals share a powerful bond. Through the ages, this bond has been the source of solace and relief for people who suffer from physical or emotional pain. The healing power of this relationship is explored through what is known today as animal-assisted therapy.

Image source: only-apartments.com

Animal-assisted therapy is a known preventive and interventive method which is held by the contribution of specially trained animals and professionals. The animals can be used to promote certain advancements in individuals receiving therapy, including the calming effect that positive animal interaction brings. Animal-assisted therapy is also seen as an important catalyst for therapist-patient bonding.

Image source: tudonna.it

Moreover, animal-assisted therapy has been especially effective with children. A slew of studies have shown that children have an innate fascination and curiosity toward animals, which makes it easier for a child to empathize and relate to an animal whose actions are simple and obvious, than with a human who exhibits more complex behaviors.

Although some do ask whether animal-assisted therapy can indeed initiate long-lasting improvements especially in mental health, what cannot be denied is that therapy does work with the aid of an animal. The benefits of animal-assisted therapy for humans with mental disorders have been well-documented using cats and dogs. Studies have also noted that therapy using farm animals have positive influences on self-efficacy and coping ability among patients with long-lasting psychiatric symptoms.

Image source: agreaterhope.blogspot.com

The right kind of human-animal bond can bring forth powerful changes in a person’s life. This website explains how Turn-About Ranch in Utah employs equine therapy in helping troubled teens.