Family Therapy & Coaching

Your teen may be the one struggling with a dual diagnosis disorder, but they’re not the only one affected. The truth is, dual diagnosis touches everyone in your teen’s life – especially you. These challenges can divide your family, erode the trust between you and your child, trigger mental and emotional distress, and can even lead to financial and legal hardships.

At Red Mountain Colorado, we know that healing the entire family system is essential to your teen’s long-term success. Our family therapeutic process is designed to help you and your child address underlying problems, so that you can get back to being a family again.

Our Approach to Family Therapy at Red Mountain Colorado

When your teen first enters treatment, they may not be ready to immediately jump into collaborative family therapy sessions. That’s why we initiate family healing at the individual level first.

While your teen is meeting regularly with their therapist and participating in experiential therapy and adventure therapy, we’ll provide you with weekly updates and coaching sessions that are meant to get to the bottom of your parenting style and figure out what worked well and what could be improved.

As your teen progresses through treatment, we’ll begin telephonic phone therapy to help you interact with your child again. And then once your teen is ready, we’ll add in family visits where you and your teen will work together to heal the family system, fix your trust and communication, and improve your overall wellness.

Through our family therapy approach, you will learn to understand your family dynamics, identify what roles you and your teen play in the family system and better define your relationship. This all can leads to you and your teen building a stronger connection in a healthy and effective manner.

How We Help Change Your Family Dynamic for the Better

We know that there has been a lot of hurt on both sides because of trauma and dual diagnosis disorders. That means that in family therapy, past events need to be processed and codependent relationships need to be resolved. But none of this healing can happen without understanding and correcting the roles each member of the family plays.

In circumstances involving trauma and behavioral issues each member of your family takes on a specific role or a combination of roles without realizing it. These roles can be toxic and lend to the challenges your teen has faced.

It’s our job during family therapy to help you uncover the following family roles, determine the best way to change them and help you become whole again:

• The Problem Child/ Identified Patient (IP) – The “world” revolves around this individual in the family system. They are the center of attention and are unconsciously selected to act out the family’s inner conflicts as a diversion.
• The Enabler – This individual protects the IP from the consequences of their own actions and behaviors. This person may make excuses for the IP in order to prevent embarrassment, reduce anxiety, avoid conflict and maintain some control over a difficult situation.
• The Hero – This individual tries to be an overachiever in order to draw attention away from the IP. They put a lot of time and energy into their good behavior in the hope that it’ll encourage the IP to get better.
• The Scapegoat – This individual tends to act out and exhibit poor behavior to distract the rest of the family from the IP. This tends to deflect attention away from the real problem at hand.
• The Lost Child – This individual tries to avoid family issues and IP’s behavioral problems by isolating themselves. They’ll turn to books or individual activities to cope, and often are not present if arguments or fights break out.
• The Mascot – Unlike The Lost Child, this individual uses humor and sarcasm to cope with the problem. They’ll try to ease the tension or make light of a serious situation by cracking jokes or clowning around.

While not all these roles may appear in your own family system, many of them tend to be identified once family therapy and coaching begins. Addressing these roles can pave the way for increased healing from past events that have caused pain and resentment in the family.

Help Your Family Heal at Red Mountain Colorado

By the time your teen is ready to move on from treatment, we want your family to be in a healthy state that promotes and supports your child’s recovery. Our family therapy and coaching approach can set up your family for long-term recovery and success. Contact our experienced team to learn more about how you can get started today.