DBT therapy maybe a recommendation from your child’s pediatrician because self harm and cutting is now occurring. Your teenager needs extra emotional coping strategies to handle intense emotions in positive ways. Many times, teenagers and young adults are struggling with many intense feelings and they don’t know how to let them out. These different emotions may include jealousy, frustration, envy, anxiety, nervousness, fear, and low motivation.
Someone at school might be criticizing or bullying your teenager, and they are trying to release it through self harm or cutting. When your teenager is partaking in self injury, this is a sign that they need skills to learn how to cope with feelings in more positive ways. The Essex, Connecticut DBT teen therapists at Wisdom Within Counseling specialize in DBT therapy.
Signs my teenagers needs a Essex, Connecticut DBT teen therapist
One sign that your adolescent or teenager is self harming or cutting is that they wear long sleeves. Especially in the summer months, when your teenager would naturally wear a T-shirt, they choose to wear long sleeves. This could be a sign that they are self harming and trying to conceal recent cuts. Self harm is a major issue amongst teenagers. Your teenager may also be moody, struggling with depression, we’re going through heartbreak. Teenagers who self harm and cut themselves may be going through a major emotional change like divorce or separation, moving, or being left out at school.
To begin, click the button below for a phone consult to work with an Essex, Connecticut DBT teen therapist to stop self-harm.
DBT therapy in Essex, Connecticut can teach self-love and self acceptance tools rather than self harm practices.
There are many different reasons why teenagers and young adults begin injuring themselves and cutting their skin. At first, your teenager may be cutting the surface of their skin, but overtime, the cuts go deeper. Some teenagers also struggle with suicidal thinking. Other teenagers struggle with self harm and cutting alongside an eating disorder. Sensory processing disorder and sensitivities to noises and sounds, can all go along side self harm and cutting. Your teenager is trying to relieve an unpleasant feeling through self harm. In the best way they know how, they are trying to let go.
Your teenager can go to counseling in Essex, Connecticut and gain DBT skills to overcome distressing emotions.
Counseling provides a safe place for your teenager to reflect on a variety of relationships in their life. Right now, it might feel like your teenager is also moody, impulsive, may even be stealing, or drinking alcohol behind your back. All of these are red flag behaviors that say your teenager is an emotional distress. DBT therapy in Essex, Connecticut can be a place where your teenager can sit down and get emotional confidence strategies. In DBT counseling, your teenager can realize there are outlets for the intense feelings they have.
Why is my teenager self-harming and cutting?
Cutting and self harm behaviors in teenager are like an addiction. Just like an alcoholic numbs out by drinking more alcohol, your teenager is numbing away intense feelings through cutting. Essentially, every time your teenager creates a scratch or a cut on their skin, their brain releases oxytocin, a feel good chemical. In someways, they are numbing out the emotional pain they are experiencing due to an external trigger.
What is your teenager’s trigger for self harm?
Maybe, your teenager was bullied at school and that is their trigger. Or, their trigger is getting broken up with before the school dance and feels hurt. Also, another trigger could be overall experiencing a family conflict or being pulled into a fight between parents. When your teenager harms themselves, they are not using good judgment and are acting impulsively. Therefore, DBT therapy teaches teenagers how to take a moment to pause, to think. From there, your teenager can consider different choices from inner wisdom and self compassion. Instead of cutting their skin, your teenager can look at their self sooth kit and do something else instead.
What is a self sooth kit and DBT therapy in Essex, Connecticut?
In DBT counseling, we help teenagers build a self soothe kit with bubbles, tissue boxes, Play-Doh, chocolates, and learn healthy ways to relieve stress. This is a physical bundle that your teenager gets to take home for moments of emotional intensity.
How can walk and talk therapy in the fresh air outside help with stopping self harm and cutting?
As well, we offer a walk and talk therapy by the beach in the Niantic bay boardwalk. On a sunny day, your teenager can go outside for their therapy session to get a walk in the fresh air. Joyful movement can be a big part of recovering from self harm.
Can DBT counseling help stop self harm?
However, after two or three months of no self harm, your teenager may regress and get triggered again. In this case, we look at this as progress. As long as we are lengthening the distance between the self harm episodes, that is a step in the right direction. In the beginning when your teenager is starting counseling, your teen might be self harming three times a week. After 12 weeks of counseling, they might be self harming every 2 to 3 months. Overtime, from learning self soothe skills and DBT therapy, your teenager can understand how to cope in a healthy way without hurting themselves. Your teenager can gain alternatives to self harm and learn how to stop cutting their skin when angry, jealous, or upset.
Your teenager can develop emotional confidence strategies to be prepared for college living in independent living one day
How does my teenager learn DBT therapy skills?
Right now, your teenager may be feeling helpless, overwhelmed, defeated, or in capable.
Our team of therapists teach DBT skills to teenagers and a variety of different ways.
We believe that teenagers need creative therapies and express of arts to release frustration, anxiety, and fear. Painting, using watercolors, or glitter gel pens can be a way to express emotions calmly and peacefully. Sitting at the art table, or going for a walk by the beach can be very calming and holistic ways to build coping strategies. Additionally, DBT skills are woven into session and using musical instruments. Your teenager can learn how to use music and even playlists to reduce intense emotions and impulsive behaviors. DBT therapy teaches your teenager skills every session to love and accept themselves more deeply. If your teenager struggles with depression, anxiety, trauma, or even suicidal thinking, DBT therapy can help them create a life worth living.
How can an Essex, Connecticut DBT teen therapist help my teenager stop cutting and self-injuring?
Working with an Essex, Connecticut DBT therapist provides positive coping tools. Your teenager can learn to manage their depression and overwhelming thoughts and healthy ways. Instead of getting angry about things outside of their control, they can use their wise mind. Wise mind, a DBT skill, teaches teenagers how to see like an owl looking down from above. Gaining perspective and seeing the big picture is a big skill that teenagers who are self harming need. When feeling the urge to self harm, teenagers get so stuck in an intense emotion like anger, hopelessness, or hurt.
Therefore, from a mixture of DBT therapies, creative expressive arts, and walking therapies by the beach, your adolescent or teenager can have a toolbox of holistic strategies for stress.
Painting can bring out a peaceful side of your teenager. DBT therapy can also include parent support sessions as well as counseling for teenagers. At Wisdom Within Counseling, we go outside the box and offer a variety of unique, creative, and holistic therapies to help teenagers feel like a leader in their own therapy process. Having a variety of creative therapies in Essex, Connecticut allows teenagers to embrace themselves, believe in themselves, and rebuild self-esteem. Suicidal teens can start to feel hopeful again from working with the team at Wisdom Within Counseling.
To begin, click the button below for a phone consult to work with an Essex, Connecticut DBT teen therapist to stop self-harm.
Essex, Connecticut DBT teen therapists support positive coping tools for self-harm behaviors
