An Unforgettable Summer: Teen Trauma Recovery with Intensive EMDR
Textbooks are returned, finals are done, report cards are in, the backpack is cleaned out and will probably be put away eventually, Your teens are done with school for the year, and summer break has started. They’re breathing a sigh of relief, but you aren’t so sure that summer will be easy this year.
Summer isn’t easy for teens dealing with trauma
While your teen is probably excited about the possibilities summer holds, you might be worried. You know your teen’s been going through something that has made them isolate more than usual. They have been away from friends and the activities they used to enjoy, obtained lower grades than you know they can achieve, and appeared either angrier, quieter, or more stressed.. You know something is wrong and they aren’t sharing.
School gave your teen a routine, which helped them cope at least a little, but summer’s more relaxed schedule worries you. The mental health symptoms, the stress, and any unresolved trauma that your teen has been carrying may feel even heavier now that all they have is free time.
You know you don’t want to watch them stay at home, sleeping too much, glued to a screen all summer, barely speaking to anyone, sullen and miserable. How can you help your teen make this a summer they’ll love?
Do teens really experience trauma?
What could your teen be traumatized by, you might wonder? I get asked a lot about whether it’s possible for teens to have mental health challenges like trauma, and the answer is definitely yes!
With all the worries adults have to juggle, it may seem like a teen’s life is a worry-free paradise. It can sometimes be hard for adults to realize that teens absorb the stresses, painful experiences, and loss just as much, if not more, than adults do.
Teens can face traumatic experiences at school, home, and with friends, and because they may not fully understand how to communicate what they’re going through, it can be even harder for them to process their experiences and deal with the aftermath. School bullying, peer micro aggressions, family strife, moving schools, abuse, disasters, loss, and more can cause trauma in a teen.
It’s important, as a parent, to recognize and respect what your teen is going through, even if you don’t think it should be so hard for them. Their experiences are theirs, they’re real, and they’re impacting them now. Instead of trying to pretend everything is okay, connecting your teen to a more intensive therapy like EMDR therapy over the summer could help them clear any struggles they are experiencing and make them be okay.
Symptoms of trauma in teens include:
Disproportionate emotional responses (very upset at a minor inconvenience, or numb to an emergency)
Being hyperindependent one moment, and seeking your company constantly the next
Rebelliousness
Avoiding things, places, and people they used to enjoy
Flashbacks to traumatic experiences, constant worry
Pessimism, wanting to be alone all the time
Nightmares, insomnia
Panic attacks
Summer is the perfect time to focus on trauma recovery
During the school year, academics, extracurriculars, time with friends, and family obligations can fill your teen’s schedule to the point where therapy feels like it’s too much. At the same time, a single 50-minute session a week might not be enough to help your teen.
Summer means brighter days that can boost your teen’s mood after the heavy days of winter. It means days at the beach, relaxation, and time with friends to look forward to, giving your teen goals to support their momentum as they work on their mental health. It also means your teen has time to focus on themselves, in therapy, especially if you connect them to a supportive therapist who can help with trauma recovery.
You may have held back from adding therapy to your teen’s schedule during the school year, but now that it’s summer, they have time. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy helps a teen shake off the weight of trauma and go into the rest of their summer with a desire to enjoy life as much as they can.
Regular EMDR vs. intensive EMDR: What’s the difference?
For regular EMDR, your teen would have a once-weekly session where you would work with them through the steps in the EMDR process. Each week, for around 50 minutes per session, your teen and I will work on desensitizing them to lingering trauma and installing new, positive thoughts to cope better with painful memories.
The steps of EMDR include:
Client history and identifying events/memories to work on.
Learning coping resources to use in the EMDR process.
Bilateral stimulation and traumatic memory access.
Identifying associated thoughts and feelings.
Reprocess memories with new positive associations, thoughts, and emotions.
A body scan to help your mind and body release the physical sensations of trauma and integrate new beliefs and feelings.
Intensive EMDR: Longer sessions, rapid results
For a teen who is out of school, with fewer responsibilities and more time on their hands, EMDR can be offered in a more intensive way so that trauma can be processed more quickly, with longer sessions that last several hours. EMDR intensives have been shown to be just as effective, with half-day sessions making it possible to cover the same amount of trauma recovery as 3-6 regular EMDR sessions.
Intensive EMDR uses the same EMDR process multiple times in one session, with built-in breaks, giving your teen the chance to make rapid progress and really dig into traumatic memories with support from an empathetic, experienced therapist at their side every step of the way. Instead of trying to cope alone, the structure of EMDR makes sure your teen learns how to cope with the stress of trauma, while reducing its influence on their daily life.
Intensive EMDR in Coral Springs can also make sure your teen sticks to therapy. Weekly sessions can feel all too easy to cancel or postpone, and progress may feel too slow for your teen. Intensive EMDR sessions make it easier for teens and their families to get as much out of EMDR as possible.
How can a summer intensive EMDR experience help teens with trauma recovery?
You want to see your teen have fun this summer. You’d love to see them get their spark back, to become the interested, engaged young person you know they can be. You’d like to see them actually enjoy a family trip or have fun with friends this summer, without worrying about trauma ruining their good time.
Through EMDR trauma recovery, your teen will be able to reduce the impacts of trauma on their everyday life, both by making them less susceptible to trauma reminders (or triggers), and by accepting more positive beliefs about themselves to counteract the negative thoughts and beliefs trauma handed them.
Intensive EMDR helps your teen handle trauma reminders
Starting off your teen’s summer with trauma recovery sets them up to be able to actually enjoy the rest of their summer. Think about what your teen is facing; instead of being trapped by painful memories, stuck in anxiety cycles, or descending into depression, your teen will develop the mental resources to cope. When they’re reminded of the traumatic events or memories, instead of being pulled right back to the past, they’ll be more able to stay in the here and now.
So that family trip that reminds them of a car crash when they were young? Instead of trying to avoid the experience or shutting down because of trauma, they can stay present in the car with the family, making the trip much more manageable with EMDR.
And when they do experience stress, like seeing their bully at their summer job or feeling rejected by friends who didn’t text them about a party, coping tools from EMDR can help them re-regulate themselves, without getting stuck in a flashback or feeling the need to withdraw from the world.
What will it look like for your teen as EMDR starts to work?
Improved mood, with fewer mood swings
Handling stress without shutting down or blowing up
Less preoccupation with traumatic experiences
Better sleep
Engaging actively with responsibilities, friends, and life
Better memory, decision-making, and less impulsivity
Setting goals, dreaming big, looking forward to the future
Can intensive EMDR’s concentrated sessions help adults process trauma too?
Without the pressure of having to maintain both your schedule and your teen’s busy school schedules, you may find you have more time on your hands in the summer. You may also be dealing with your own trauma, and intensive EMDR can help you to heal.
By taking the time to work through intensive EMDR sessions, you can quickly change your relationship with your traumatic memories. You can shift deeply held negative beliefs that trauma left behind, and you may find that you also enjoy more of your summer after intensive EMDR therapy.
EMDR intensives in Coral Springs can help your teen and even yourself with trauma recovery
When your teen is struggling with trauma, the free time of summer can feel like more of a burden than a benefit. You can help your teen make the most of their summer by connecting them with me, a certified EMDR therapist, to start intensive EMDR therapy for your teen.
At Haven Family Therapy in Coral Springs, FL, I’ve worked with teens and adults on reprocessing traumatic events, helping them to embrace life and enjoy the activities, connections, and experiences trauma took from them. Your teen has the capacity for healing and self-acceptance, even if they’re uncertain at first, and intensive EMDR therapy can start their summer off right. When your teen is ready, I welcome you to contact me to learn more about how intensive EMDR can help.
Alexa provides therapy for teens and adults looking to develop their emotional intelligence in Coral Springs and Fort Lauderdale, offering sessions in both English and Portuguese. Call Alexa today at 786-565-2465 or schedule a free 15-minute consultation to get started.
