Help for Teens that Self-Harm
Teen Challenge Adventure Ranch is a long-term residential therapy program for teen boys ages 14-17 struggling with substance abuse, mental health, and behavioral problems like self-harm and suicide.
For more than 50 years we’ve helped teens overcome life-controlling issues using a Christ-centered approach that includes clinical therapy, outdoor adventure, academic success, and self-growth.
What is Self-Harm & Why Do Teens Do It?
Self-harm, also known as self-injury, is the act of deliberately causing harm to oneself, often as a way to cope with emotional pain, intense anger, frustration, or other distressing feelings. It’s not necessarily a suicide attempt, nor does it mean that someone wants to die. Rather, self-harm is a negative coping mechanism to deal with overwhelming or intense emotions.
Self-harm looks like:
● Cutting
● Burning
● Hitting Oneself
● Picking at Wounds
● Head Banging
● Hair Pulling
● Excessive Scratching
● Deliberate Bruising
At Teen Challenge Adventure Ranch, we work with teens that self-harm by working to address the root cause of these behaviors through Christian clinical therapy facilitated by licensed therapists.
Understanding Self-Harming Behavior in Teens
Self-harm is a sign of underlying emotional distress. While it might bring temporary relief from emotional discomfort, it doesn’t address the root causes of the distress. People who engage in self-harm often struggle with emotions and situations they find hard to express or resolve, and they may not have healthier coping mechanisms in place.
Teens may resort to self-harm in order to feel a sense of control, relieve intense emotions, or sometimes just to ‘feel something’ after living in a state of emotional numbness. Self-harm can be a stress or trauma response and requires psychotherapy for treatment.
When is Residential Treatment Appropriate for Self-Harm?
Self-harm is a symptom of a deeper mental health problem. If you see signs of self-harm in your teen, therapy is the first step toward healing. For most teens, working with a licensed therapist in an outpatient setting will be enough to achieve a healthier balance.
But what happens when traditional outpatient therapy fails?
What happens when your son’s therapist says that his condition might require more intensive treatment, or that they are no longer equipped to treat him? Where do you turn when your needs something more than a 30-minute weekly therapy session?
Long-term residential treatment can provide a safe, structured space for intensive mental health intervention. In a residential program, teens benefit from around-the-clock monitoring, intensive therapeutic activities, structured schedules, and supplemental skill-building activities all designed to facilitate healing and promote sustainable recovery.
Families choose residential mental health treatment for teens that self-harm when their diagnoses are severely impacting daily life. If your son is withdrawing from social activities, having difficulty maintaining friendships, getting bad grades in school, or causing problems at home that feel out of control, a long-term residential mental health treatment facility can help the teen and the family heal.
Why Choose Teen Challenge Adventure Ranch?
Teen Challenge Adventure Ranch is a dual-diagnosis mental health treatment facility with a Christ-centered, trauma-based approach. We help boys that self-harm due to problems regulating emotions, managing stress, or as the result of a childhood trauma.
Our program provides stabilization, skill-building, and transition support so that your son can identify why he is self-harming, address that issue in a safe, therapeutic environment, and learn healthy coping mechanisms to thrive through sustainable recovery in the real world.
Effective, Sustainable Recovery is in Reach for Teens that Self-Harm
Christ-centered, clinically-minded mental-health residential treatment for teen boys.
Contact our admissions team to learn more about Teen Challenge Adventure Ranch and take the first step toward a healthier, happier future today.
