Teen Coping Skills Group
The general goal of the Teens Coping Skills Group is to help members learn and refine skills in changing behavioral patterns associated with high risk behaviors and difficulty managing emotions. Dialectical Behavioral Therapy interventions of emotion regulation, distress tolerance, mindfulness, walking the middle path, and interpersonal effectiveness are the areas of focus in the skills training group. There will be five monthly sessions. New members may join at the beginning of each month. An intake and planning session is held with the parent and teen prior to their first meeting with the group.
The group’s task is to educate the participants in a manner that is both informational and experiential. The group is structured and focused on skills training. Members are expected to commit to:
- Regular attendance
- Completion of homework assignments to practice new skills
- Willingness to review their experience with homework in the group discussion
Learning and using the skills taught in the group is best accomplished when the individual’s therapist is active in supporting the participant’s skills practice.
Criteria for Group Participation
Participants must be between the ages of 14 and 18 years old.
Group therapy participants are encouraged to be involved in individual therapy.
Group members have a history of one or more of the following:
- Recent suicide attempt, gesture, or ideation
- Self- mutilation, such as cutting, burning, etc.
- High- risk sexual practices
- Substance Abuse
- Emotional Instability (Fast, intense mood changes with little control)
- Interpersonal Problems (Difficulty getting along with others)