Self-Harm Treatment Center for Adolescents & Teens in Utah

Learn more about self-harm treatment at Youth Care Treatment Center in Utah

Sometimes a person can feel so much emotional pain that they feel the need to physically harm themselves. This behavior, known as self-harm, typically occurs among people with mental health conditions who are struggling to cope with intense emotional stressors. Children or adolescents who are engaging in self-harm typically scratch, burn, hit, punch, scrape, or cut themselves. Some will ingest poisonous chemicals, break their own bones, or take excessive and unnecessary risks.

People who engage in self-harm generally do not do so as an attempt to gain attention. Rather, they are unable to cope with their emotional stressors, and so they turn to self-harm to try to find relief. Additionally, it is possible for them to end their lives accidentally while harming themselves.

While self-harming behaviors can have painful and even tragic results for individuals and their loved ones, proper treatment provided by a self-harm rehab center can help a young person learn to manage their emotional stressors and develop healthier and more effective methods of coping. At Youth Care Treatment Center in Utah, we understand the stresses and turmoil that can drive a young person to self-harm, and we provide caring staff members who are well equipped to help adolescents or teens with our self-harm rehab find healing and healthier ways to cope.

Helping a loved one get treatment for self-harm

Watching your struggle with intense stress and negative emotions is difficult, but watching one’s child turn to self-harm as an attempt to cope can feel nearly unbearable. While witnessing your child experience this sort of pain can be emotionally exhausting, there are certain things you can do to help, such as:

• Remain supportive. Reassure your child that you love them and that your love for then will not change. Be patient and encourage your child.
• Research self-harm. Consult with mental health professionals who can speak with you about self-harming behavior and give suggestions for how you can help. Also, consider reading about self-harm and researching the behavior.
• Take care of yourself. Being a parent to a child struggling with self-harm is difficult, so make sure to bring a support network around you. Consider joining support groups for parents of children who engage in self-harm.
• Research treatment centers. Investigate self-harm rehab options and decide which ones may be a good fit for your child. Also, involve your child in the process. While as the parent, you have final say regarding treatment, treating your child like a partner in the process can help them feel more invested in getting treatment for self-harm.
• Stay in touch with your child. When your child starts treatment for their self-harm, speak with self-harm rehab staff on a regular basis. Do your best to make sure that your child knows you are supporting them every step of the way in their self-harm rehab journey.

Why consider treatment for self-harm at Youth Care Treatment Center in Utah

Young people who struggle with self-harm are at risk for a number of severe negative consequences.  Because self-harm often co-occurs with other mental health disorders such as depression and anxiety, children and adolescents who engage in self-harm may also be suffering from the negative effects of these other disorders as well. Self-harming behavior is also inherently dangerous. While self-harming behavior is generally not directly related to suicidal thoughts, if a person becomes overwhelmed by the symptoms of their co-occurring disorders, they may think about suicide. Thankfully, despite the potential for these negative consequences, young people who struggle with self-harm can receive self-harm rehab at a treatment center to help them break free from this painful cycle and find healing that can help them live their lives to the fullest. If you have any questions about self-harm, do not hesitate to contact our self-harm treatment center at Youth Care, located in Utah.

Youth Care Treatment Center philosophy and benefits

At Youth Care, we believe that teens in crisis are best served in a home-like setting that emphasizes personalized interactions, close supervision and comprehensive professional support.

In this supportive therapeutic environment, students benefit from the guidance of caring professionals who know them not merely as clients, but as unique individuals with specific strengths, weaknesses, hopes and fears.

The Youth Care environment is built upon a foundation of mutual respect. Our students are expected to treat staff and peers with respect and in return they can expect to be treated with respect.

Staff members are trained to apply consequences and provide feedback for students in a respectful manner without demeaning or belittling the adolescent.

We feel strongly about the value of long-lasting family relationships, and we believe that family involvement is critical to the success of the child, both while in treatment and following placement.

To support these beliefs, our program is designed to help students develop a greater appreciation for their own families – and we strive to include the family in the therapeutic process as much as possible.

Here are our five core values:

• Respect – for our patients, our employees, and our community
• Integrity – in our dealings with all those whose lives we touch
• Accountability – to our patients and their families, and to our colleagues
• Responsibility – for the decisions we make and the actions we take
• Excellence – in every task we perform

Types of self-harm treatment offered at Youth Care Treatment Center in Utah

At Youth Care, a self-harm rehab center in Utah, provides residential care in a peaceful, structured, home-like setting. In this comfortable, therapeutic environment, adolescents or teens are able to receive treatment for their self-harm behaviors as they work towards overcoming the compulsion to self-harm. At our self-harm rehab center, are pleased to offer individualized programming that is tailored to meet each adolescent’s or teen’s unique needs and enhance their already-existing skillset.

The residential self-harm rehab here at Youth Care is based on accountability, responsibility, and respect. A level system is used to provide constructive feedback to the students as they learn to show respect by displaying appropriate behaviors and earning privileges and increased levels of trust. This connection between accountability, responsibility, trust, and privileges is an important life lesson that can be used in our students’ future relationships and implemented as they achieve future successes.

At Youth Care Treatment Center in Utah, we believe in honoring the adolescents or teens who are entrusted into our care by helping them understand the choices they have and the natural consequences that can occur as a result of the choices they make. We believe that this not only helps our students learn good decision-making skills, but it also enhances the confidence they have in themselves by showing them that they are capable of making those good decisions.

Throughout an adolescent’s or teen’s time spent at our self-harm rehab center, as they work to overcome the impulse to self-harm, they will have the opportunity to participate in the following interventions:

Medication management: The use of certain psychotropic medications may be beneficial in helping to alleviate the distressing symptoms that youth experience. Whether or not medication is used, however, will always be determined on a case-by-case basis, depending upon the particular needs of each adolescent or teen. Adolescents or teens will meet with a psychiatrist once a week, and all medication management needs will be handled by the our self-harm treatment center’s psychiatrist and nursing and medical teams.

Individual therapy: Intensive individual therapy is a core component to the self-harm rehab process at Youth Care. Students have the opportunity to meet with their primary therapists three times each week. Additionally, students can meet with an addictions counselor once per week if they are struggling with substance abuse concerns.

Group therapy: Group therapy sessions play a major role in the self-harm treatment plans of our students at our treatment center. Group sessions are held on a daily basis and are broken down as follows:

• Process groups are held 3 times each week.
• Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) groups are held 1 time each week.
• Recreational therapy groups are held 2 times each week.
• Music therapy groups are held 1 time each week.
• Addictions groups are held 1 time each week.

Family therapy: At Youth Care, a self-harm rehab center in Utah, we feel strongly that family integration is key in helping our students overcome their urge to engage in self-harming behaviors. Because of this, we work hard to ensure that our students’ families are heavily involved in the self-harm treatment process. Family therapy sessions are held once each week and are led by each student’s primary therapist. Additionally, Parent Days are held every 6 to 8 weeks, offering educational seminars, multifamily group therapy, parent support groups, family therapy sessions, and family recreational activities.

Recreational therapy: When students engage in treatment for self-harm rehab at our treatment center to overcome the compulsion to self-injure, they will be offered a well-rounded approach to treatment that incorporates recreational activities into their schedules. Recreational therapy is designed to help students have a successful treatment experience by achieving physical, cultural, and social accomplishments. Recreational activities also provide students with opportunities to learn such valuable skills as teamwork, problem solving, communication, and trust. Furthermore, through participation in recreational activities, students can build better social skills, communication skills, coping skills, and interpersonal skills. They may also develop newfound interests, discover unknown talents, and experience an improvement in their self-esteem. Under the guidance and supervision of our licensed recreational therapist, students participate in community and in-house self-harm rehab recreational activities 3 to 7 times per week.

Experiential therapy: In addition to the previously mentioned therapies, our treatment center in Utah may also include experiential therapies for self-harm rehab for your adolescent or teen. The frequency of these experiential self-harm rehab therapies will be determined by each student’s primary therapist and may include the following:

• Situational Therapy
• Exposure Therapy
• Expressive Therapy

Community service activities: Students will be involved in community service activities at least twice each month. We have found that having students participate in such activities affords them the opportunity to develop greater empathy and a broader understanding of others, both of which can aid in their own recovery. Examples of the community service activities that students may participate in include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Filling shelves at the Food Bank
• Caring for animals at the Humane Society
• Visiting the elderly

Academics: At Youth Care, we believe that every student deserves to achieve success in school and therefore view our academic programming as a therapeutic intervention. Our academic program is fully accredited, which allows students to earn school credits, increase their knowledge, and work towards achieving academic goals during their self-harm rehab process. Students are enrolled in a full day’s curriculum, which takes place in a traditional academic setting and is led by a team of certified secondary education teachers and special education teachers who have been trained to work with students possessing a range of learning abilities. All students have academic goals and objectives included in their individualized self-harm treatment plans, and they will attend school from 9:00am to 5:00pm every weekday, with self-harm rehab interventions being interwoven throughout their daily schedules.

In addition to the residential treatment offered through Youth Care, we are also pleased to provide partial hospitalization programming (PHP) for students who do not require the intensity of the programming that is offered in a residential setting. This daytime treatment option allows youth to attend the same daily programming as those receiving residential self-harm rehab, yet return home at night.

If your child is suffering from the ongoing compulsion to self-harm and requires a safe, structured, and encouraging environment to work towards overcoming or managing their symptoms, look no further than our rehab center at Youth Care, located in Utah. Our specialized programming will be catered to meet your child’s every needs so that they can succeed in living the full, happy, healthy, and productive life that they deserve to be living.