In the past decade or so, when working with adolescents or teens and mental health, ADD or ADHD, the focus has been on the individual child and specifically on the identification, diagnosis and treatment of their problem. However, in recent years the idea of teen therapy has been evolving into a more holistic and preventative mental health and wellness approach.
There is a great deal of information via research from universities that has been peer reviewed as well as research that mental health care practitioners have collected that has shown this holistic approach to be much more effective than traditional talk therapy alone.
The rate of effectiveness has been improved greatly when working with a holistic and preventative approach as well. In the past few decades, mental health has commonly been used in treating someone with mental illness, however, this term mental health is being used more as a positive phrase that encompasses a more holistic and preventative approach.
A holistic approach typically means that we think of the entire body when focusing on health and not just one part of the body, as our bodies are connected and at one part of our body and external and internal forces impact other areas of our body.
For example, your gut health directly affects your mental health, therefore, if you eat foods that cause inflammation or foods that have a lot of chemicals in them you might notice that you feel sluggish or fatigued or even sad. Many people have misdiagnosed this feeling with depression symptoms; however, they could potentially be easily eliminated if the individual cleans up their diet.
A preventative approach is one where we look at what we can do every day for mental health and wellness, not just when we’re feeling anxious, stressed, or sad, but rather focusing more on a healthy mental health routine rather than focusing on coping skills for when anxiety gets high or when depression symptoms are really bad. And many practitioners now like to focus on mental health as a positive concept that encompasses social and personal resources as well as exercise and nutritional benefits.
This is a much more solution focused approach to mental health and wellness rather than a problem focused approach to mental health and wellness. Many practitioners over the last few years have been using positive and inclusive terms and have been trying to focus on people’s positive capacities rather than their perceived deficits.
The most recent definitions of mental health and wellness have focused on positive characteristics such as: resilience and inner sense of coherence, the ability to manage the emotions successfully and appropriately, the capacity to have an accurate self-concept and high and the ability to be sensitive to one’s own emotions or others’ emotions.
As mental health has become a more positive and more holistic approach practitioners look at patients environments rather than only at individuals as a way to understand their patience but also as a way to positively address the problems in their life. When working with adolescents using a positive and holistic approach to mental health, parents become an instrumental asset and a necessity for positive change.
When children have the support and unconditional love and acceptance of their parents they will be much more at ease and willing to look within and make the changes necessary to feel better mentally and physically. However, if a child does not have the support and love and encouragement from their parents that they need to look within and make these changes for themselves, they might not see the importance and they might not think that they are worth it enough to strive to feel better.
I’ve had several parents of teens that drop them off at the door and go to the coffee shop in the building while their child is in therapy. If a child feels like they are doing this all on their own, they might not see the point to continue. Also, if the child is going to make long lasting change that benefits their mental health and wellness, their parents have to make changes as well. For one person in the family to make a change, the rest of the people in the family have to make a change as well.
One person in the cycle cannot make a change without affecting all of the other people in the family. Therefore, if parents are involved in the therapy process, the results are much more effective and have a greater chance of stability and long-term effectiveness.