Outpatient Counseling For Adolescents
Early Intervention & Treatment for Ages 13-18
Has your teenaged son or daughter said, “It’s just weed!”? Today’s marijuana is much more powerful and addictive, so you’re right to be concerned.
This individually-customized six-to-eight week outpatient program is uniquely designed for teens aged 13-18 who have begun experimenting with marijuana, alcohol or other substances. It includes laboratory screening for marijuana, alcohol and certain prescription and street drugs.
The goal of the program is to stop any further substance misuse and reduce the likelihood of longer-term substance use or misuse disorders, substance abuse, or drug addiction or alcoholism.
Each client’s personalized program can include any combination of the following services:
- Weekly group therapy
- Weekly individual therapy
- Weekly family therapy
Our approach includes:
- Education on the effect of marijuana on the brain and body
- Identifying and enhancing each teen’s “why” — their motivation for changing their use of marijuana
- Developing specific techniques and strategies to halt their marijuana usage
- Building improved decision-making skills
- Discussion of “trigger” situations that occur between counseling sessions, and how they handled them
The program includes random drug tests. We also track improvement in refusal skills throughout the program, using standardized assessments.
Contact us to register your teen for this program. We can help you plan how to approach your child about treatment.
Not sure if you should be worried? We are happy to be of service and to talk through the situation that concerns you.
When to worry about marijuana use in teens and young adults.
Although many people perceive marijuana as comparatively harmless, its potency has increased in recent years. Modern marijuana has about six times the THC levels of the weed many parents remember smoking in college in the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s.
In fact, around 100,000 12-17 year-olds make marijuana-related emergency room visits every year. And about 1 in 10 marijuana users will develop a chemical dependency on the drug.
Risks exist regardless of whether it’s smoked, inhaled through a bong, or eaten in brownies or other edibles.
Watch for these red flags.
The physical signs of marijuana use can include:
- Red or bloodshot eyes
- Laughing without an obvious reason
- Nausea
- Lack of coordination or balance
- Slowed reaction times
- Poor memory or forgetfulness
- Problems concentrating
- Loss of motivation
- Depression, panic, anxiety or hallucinations
- Dizziness, headaches, and increased blood pressure
Sometimes, behavioral signs of marijuana use are more noticeable:
- Taking risks while under the influence, like driving while high
- Using it even though it’s disrupting their lives — missing classes or losing an after-school job, for example
- Hiding it at home, in the car, at a friend’s home
- Mixing marijuana use with alcohol or other drug use
Frequently-asked questions.
I don’t know if my child’s usage is serious enough for treatment.
You don’t have to have all the answers.
The most important thing you can do is simply to recognize that your child has begun experimenting with marijuana or has become a regular user.
That’s the point where it makes sense to reach out for professional help.
If you’re not sure whether you should be worried, just give us a call. We are happy to be of service and to talk through the situation that concerns you.
My child is definitely smoking weed, but I don’t know how to get them to agree to see you.
We can help you plan a conversation that helps your child agree to reach out for help. Call our office to talk with our clinicians about how to move forward.
Is it really true that marijuana use leads to more serious drugs?
Yes. For example, people who smoke marijuana are more likely to begin abusing alcohol. Studies have also found that marijuana “primes” the brain for a stronger response to other drugs.
Scientists believe that this may be related to the effect of marijuana on the brain’s reward centers, particularly in teens where the brain is still developing. Moreover, today’s pot has six times more THC than the weed people smoked back in the 1960s, for example.