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Your teen is in treatment! That major step can (and probably will) transform their life. Reaching this point was difficult, so give yourself and your teen credit for how far you’ve come. Of course, there’s still a long way to go. Healing takes time and hard work, and starting teen mental health treatment can feel […]

Having your child or teen tell you they want to die or finding your child lying on the floor after a suicide attempt are some of the most terrifying moments that parents can live through. Here at Bricolage, about 25% of the children and teens in our program enter after expressing thoughts of suicide or […]

Unless you’ve been through some kind of group treatment program yourself, you’ve probably never seen a group therapy session.  Here’s an example of a very typical group therapy session for teens. Take a minute and just scan through the video. What do you notice? Here are the problems: Group sessions are generally broken up into […]

If you’re searching for behavioral health treatment for your child, there are many options. A lot of those choices are “evidence-based.” Does that mean every therapy will work for everyone? Definitely not. It depends a lot on context.  Not every individual with depression will respond to the same therapy, as each person is navigating their […]

What does healing look like? You probably pictured something physical, like a cut or broken bone. What about healing from a mental health condition? That answer is a lot harder to come by. The evidence of healing varies from person to person. There is no brain scan, blood test, or other physical assessment that can […]

Contrary to popular belief, psychological disorders are not caused by defective genes, neurochemical imbalances, or faulty wiring. (Note on a common point of confusion: This is different from autism, which is often the result of chromosomal abnormalities and genetic differences that affect brain development given as of yet poorly understood environmental interactions) Of course, all […]

We’ve all heard the idea in pop psychology that teen brains are immature and not fully formed which is given as a reason for all kinds of risky teen behaviors. It's been mentioned on the cover of Time Magazine, can be found in hundreds of articles on the internet, and is often repeated on numerous […]

How to Know If My Teenager Has Social Anxiety Does your teen struggle when put in social situations? Maybe you’ve noticed them staying on the edges when in large groups or really clamming up when meeting new people. You might be afraid they don’t have any friends, or that they don’t seem to know how […]

Teen depression is a crisis that affects many families across the country. Teen suicide has climbed exponentially in the past decade, with the pandemic increasing those numbers at an alarming rate. Mental health disorders have only been studied extensively in the past few decades and have troubling effects on youth. Young girls have reportedly experienced […]

Elena watched anxiously from the sidelines, arms wrapped around her chest, as her 8-year-old, Jeremiah, sat down on the soccer field. The referee blew the whistle, the sign to stop play. As the referee and the coach trotted over to Jeremiah, Elena held her breath from her perch on the bleachers, ready to run if […]