Parenting Newsletter Aspen Education Group

In this issue:
Helping Teens Cope with the Holidays After Divorce

Dealing with the Bad Influences in Your Teen's Life

Thank you for subscribing

We hope you find the articles and tips helpful. We are always open to your suggestions. If you have a topic you would like to learn more about, please let us know!

Unsubscribe Links

Call (866) 845-1391 to learn more about Aspen's programs for children, teens, and young adults.

Aspen Ranch is a licensed residential treatment center located in Loa, Utah. The Ranch's nationally renowned equine therapy program is just one part of an intensive therapeutic milieu that facilitates positive change in troubled teens. The strong work ethic inherent on the Ranch is fundamental to cultivating the characteristics of responsibility, discipline, respect and teamwork.

Turn-About Ranch is a place where old-time values such as hard work, honesty, respect, teamwork and accountability are the standard. Teens thrive in the unique environment of this spirited working cow-and-horse ranch. The objective of Turn-About Ranch is to provide a hard-hitting, high-impact therapeutic program that will remold and turn around the lives of rebellious teens.

Winter is a great time to enroll your teen in a wilderness program!

Phoenix Outdoor is a licensed wilderness-based substance abuse and chemical dependency treatment program for teenagers ages 13-17.

SUWS of the Carolinas is a therapeutic wilderness program that uses the outdoors as an alternative to conventional treatment environments, while engaging students using traditional therapeutic methods.

Four Circles Recovery Center for older teens and young adults ages 18-28 is an innovative addictions, substance abuse and co-occuring mental health disorders treatment program that combines a traditional counseling setting with extensive wilderness experiences.

Aspen Achievement Academy is a flexible length of stay program for adolescents 13-17, with over two decades of history in providing high impact treatment to teens and their families. As a clinically based program, Aspen Achievement Academy is contracted with a number of insurance companies and EAPs to provide treatment for mental health and substance abuse.

Helping Teens Cope with the Holidays After Divorce

The holidays are coming, and instead of spreading good tidings of great cheer, your family is feeling the fracture and heartache of divorce. If you’re especially sad this year, you can imagine what your teenagers are feeling. Whether they show it or not, your kids are deeply affected by their parents break-up, and the normal feelings of loneliness, abandonment and sorrow are amplified during the holiday season - a time that used to be full of memories of family togetherness.

Christmas after a divorce

The first holiday after a divorce is usually the hardest and brings the most questions. Do the kids celebrate the holiday with mom or dad? Can everyone get along for a family meal together? Can certain family traditions be maintained?

Here are a few ways to make the holidays less traumatic for teens after a divorce:

Make Plans in Advance. Talk to your ex-spouse and children long before the holidays are upon you and decide how you will handle the holiday schedule. While some families prefer to spend the entire day or week with one parent and then alternate the following year, other families are able to split the time (e.g., the morning with mom and the evening with dad) without disrupting the celebration.

If you won’t see your child this holiday, be sure to at least talk on the phone and send the positive message that the holidays are still special even though you’re not together. In most cases, it’s best not to separate the children (if you have more than one) so that they can lean on each other for support and maintain some sense of continuity.

Dealing with the Bad Influences in Your Teen's Life

Your once well-behaved teen has started getting into trouble and you don’t know who to blame - is it the influence of their favorite celebrity? Or perhaps that risqué television show or foul-mouthed rapper they spend so many hours listening to? More likely, a sudden change in behavior, dress or attitude can be traced to the friends your teen is hanging out with.

Adolescents are heavily influenced by the opinions of their peers, says Marty Ormond, program director at Turn-About Ranch, a residential treatment center for teens ages 13 to 17 that is located on a real horse and cattle ranch.

“Humans need to be connected with other humans,” he says. “When teens see a group, they gravitate toward that group and shift their behavior, whether positive or negative, in order to be accepted.”

Studies confirm that peers have a strong influence on adolescents, which can be extremely healthy (in the case of a positive peer group), or extremely unhealthy (in the case of a negative peer group).

In a study conducted by the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, researchers found that teens were more likely to engage in aggressive and risky behaviors if they believed they were in a chat room with popular, well-liked teens who endorsed those behaviors. The teens so deeply internalized these risky attitudes that they maintained them even when the popular teens weren't watching.

The study, published in the journal Child Development, also found that teens who were afraid others wouldn't like them were more vulnerable to peer influence. The researchers concluded that the best way to address risky behavior is to change the teens' perceptions of the attitudes of their peers, or to form a positive peer group that endorses healthy behaviors.

Overcoming Peer Pressure

Chances are you've already seen the power of peer pressure in your teenager's life.

What can you do to protect your teen from bad influences? Continue reading >>

Helping Teens by Helping Parents

Adolescents who attend therapeutic boarding schools are by no means alone in their effort to learn a new way of interacting with their families and the world around them. Although their families may be miles away, the best boarding schools for teens with emotional, behavioral and learning issues actively work to involve parents in every aspect of treatment.

At Stone Mountain School, a private all-boys boarding school in North Carolina, a comprehensive family program ensures that the adolescents aren’t the only ones working to make positive changes in their lives. Their parents are learning right alongside them so that when the students return home, new skills and communication strategies are in place to make for a more peaceful and productive home environment.

“No matter how much success the boys have had at school, if their parents haven’t changed along with them, their old behavior patterns are likely to re-emerge,” advises Leigh Uhlenkott, MS, LPC, NCC, LMHC, the clinical director at the school.

Learn more about the family program at Stone Mountain School >>

Find out more about Aspen Education Group • Contact Aspen • Privacy Policy