The Nexus Teen Academy editorial and clinical team is dedicated to providing informative and accurate content to help families who are struggling with adolescent behavioral health problems. The editorial team works directly with the clinical team to ensure information is accurate and up-to-date.
To do this, our team uses the following editorial guidelines:
We generally only cite government and peer-reviewed studies
Scientific claims and data are backed by qualified sources
Content is updated to ensure we are citing the most up-to-date data and information
Clinically reviewed by Executive Director Hannah Carr-Unquera, LPC
Executive Director Hannah Carr-Unquera, LPC
Hannah graduated from Arizona State University with her Bachelor’s in Psychology and Master’s in Counseling and is a Licensed Professional Counselor in Arizona. She began her work as a therapist 12 years ago in South Phoenix with an intensive outpatient program for teens and their families. She joined Nexus in the residential program as the clinical director, eventually being promoted to the executive director, creating and building the clinical program structure and a strong culture focused on redirecting the trajectory of young lives.
The Nexus Teen Academy Editorial Staff is composed of writers, editors, and clinical reviewers with many years of experience writing about mental health and behavioral health treatment. Our team utilizes peer-reviewed, clinical studies from sources like SAMHSA to ensure we provide the most accurate and current information.
According to the National Center for PTSD, 5% of adolescents meet the criteria for PTSD, with the number of teens experiencing some form of trauma being higher. Teen trauma is a complicated emotion that is difficult to define. That said, professional treatment programs that incorporate trauma therapy for teens have been shown to help in both the short- and long-term.
Unaddressed trauma can have long-term effects on your teen’s social, physical, and emotional well-being. Their academic performance may decline, or they may begin abusing alcohol and other substances. Due to these consequences, professional mental health treatment is necessary.
At this point, you may be wondering, “What is trauma-focused therapy?” Trauma-focused therapy techniques use specialized treatment approaches that help teens identify and address underlying trauma. It allows teens to understand their trauma and how to deal with it. If you are looking for a teen trauma treatment program, contact our team at Nexus Teen Academy. We can provide immediate assistance through our residential program.
Therapeutic Techniques for Adolescent Trauma
Trauma is a complex emotional response to distressing events. Due to its complexity, various techniques were developed as part of trauma therapy for teens. These techniques include the following:
Prolonged Exposure (PE)
Prolonged exposure is a common psychotherapy technique that allows teens to face their fears. It is ideal for PTSD as it will teach your teen to face their trauma-related memories rather than avoid them. Teens with PTSD tend to avoid situations that would trigger their unpleasant memories. Avoiding negative stimuli can help in the short term but is a hindrance to recovering from PTSD. PE allows teens to gradually approach their trauma-related memories in a safe and controlled way. Learning to face one’s fears helps teens overcome PTSD.
PE can be conducted over twelve to fifteen sessions, each lasting between 90 and 120 minutes.
The first PE session involves your teen giving the therapist an overview of their experiences. This is usually the hard part since your teen may lack emotional regulation skills. In subsequent sessions, your teen will be asked to provide a list of people and places that trigger their trauma. Throughout treatment, your teen will gradually be exposed to these places and situations to desensitize them to these triggers. Your teen will also discuss their emotions as they learn emotional regulation and coping skills.
Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT)
This type of therapy aims to help your teen process their emotions properly. After experiencing a traumatic event, your teen may ‘get stuck’ in their thoughts. They cannot process emotions properly, making them wallow in negative emotions. CPT helps teens challenge their perspective and conceptualize their trauma. Like guided discovery, CPT helps teens base their emotions on facts. If facts do not support your teen’s negative thoughts, they will be taught to dispel them.
CPT utilizes the following techniques to help teens with PTSD:
Skill development: During treatment, your teen will learn positive skills that can be applied at home or school. Positive skills allow teens to be adaptive and resilient since they can face their fears head-on.
Psychoeducation: The first step towards recovery is learning about PTSD. During treatment, your teen will learn about their mental health condition to help them understand their behavior. Recognizing negative thoughts and feelings allows teens to respond appropriately to triggers. Psychoeducation is crucial as it will equip your teen with the necessary knowledge to help themselves and others.
Changing beliefs: CPT helps teens change their beliefs and perspectives. During a session, they can be asked to journal about the events and read them out loud. This practice can help them break the cycle of negative thoughts and behaviors.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
Teen EMDR is a therapeutic approach developed in the 1980s and is one of the most useful forms of treatment when it comes to trauma and PTSD.
It is based on Adaptive Information Processing, a theory that analyses how the brain stores information and memories. This theory suggests that when your teen experiences a traumatic event, their brain stores memory in abnormal neural networks. This prevents healthy healing. EMDR relies on reprocessing to allow for healing. Your teen will access their traumatic memories and combine them with guided eye movements. This allows teens to process their emotions appropriately while repairing abnormal neural networks.
EMDR is an 8-phase treatment process. Each phase plays an important role in helping your teen heal. These phases include the following:
History-taking sessions: The first few sessions are reserved for taking your teen’s history. This is important because it helps the therapist better understand your teen’s trauma and allows them to develop an appropriate treatment plan.
Psychoeducation: During this phase, your teen will be taught about EMDR and their mental health condition. This step is crucial as it prepares your teen on what to expect during treatment.
Identification and assessment: This phase allows the therapist to identify specific memories that can be targeted for treatment. It also helps your teen identify distorted beliefs that need to be changed.
Desensitization and reprocessing: Here, the therapist will activate your teen’s memory while guiding them to identify specific instances that traumatize them the most. Your teen will then be asked to discuss their feelings to help them reprocess the events.
Installation: The mental health provider will help your teen focus on positive aspects of their life. Positive memories can help your teen process negative memories more effectively.
Scanning: Your teen will be asked to focus on the sensations they feel when they think about the traumatic event. They will imagine scanning their body to help record their progress. As your teen progresses through treatment, their symptoms are expected to improve.
Stabilization: Here, your teen will be taught to stabilize their emotions after each session. They will be equipped with emotional regulation skills to help them overcome their fear.
Aftercare: This phase helps the mental health practitioner evaluate whether your teen requires additional sessions.
Trauma-Focused CBT (TF-CBT)
TF-CBT is a form of teen cognitive behavioral therapy that helps teens process traumatic events. It was developed in the 1990s as a way of targeting trauma in teens. TF-CBT helps teens identify and modify unhelpful and distorted thought patterns. It also helps them learn positive coping mechanisms to help them cope with triggering events.
TF-CBT uses various components to help teens regulate their emotions. These components include the following:
Psychoeducation: This component helps teens learn about their trauma and how they can cope.
Relaxation: Techniques like focused breathing, yoga, and mindfulness are crucial in trauma treatment.
Affective regulation: Your teen will be taught to understand, identify, and modify unhelpful thoughts and emotions.
Cognitive restructuring: Here, your teen will be taught to reframe their thoughts to be more positive.
Trauma expression and narration: Talking about trauma can help one express difficult emotions and facilitate effective emotional processing.
In vivo exposure: Gradual exposure to traumatic events helps teens stop associating certain places and events with immediate danger.
Co-joint sessions: Family involvement will help your teen feel supported during treatment.
Evaluation and aftercare: The therapist will evaluate whether your teen requires additional sessions.
How Trauma-Focused Therapy Techniques Benefit Teens
Teen trauma therapy can be beneficial to those struggling with PTSD and the short- and long-term effects that come with this behavioral health problem. The benefits of trauma-focused therapy include the following:
Restoring healthy relationships: trauma can destroy your teen’s relationships. It may cause them to become depressed and distrustful of others. Through trauma-focused therapy, they learn to rebuild trust and restore broken relationships.
Symptom management: Trauma-focused care is useful in symptom management. It helps teens learn to regulate their emotions and symptoms whenever they feel triggered. It also helps them overcome guilt and shame associated with trauma.
Enhancing self-worth: Trauma-focused therapy allows teens to be more confident as they overcome trauma. It equips them with necessary social skills that boost their self-worth.
Dual-diagnosis treatment: Therapy is important in treating co-occurring disorders. Teens with PTSD often have other mental health conditions like depression, anxiety, and substance use disorder. Trauma-focused care ensures all these mental health conditions are treated.
Teen Trauma Therapy at Nexus Teen Academy
Nexus Teen Academy is a premierteen mental health treatment facility in Arizona. We offer high-quality treatment for teens with mental health and substance abuse issues. If your teen has experienced trauma, Nexus is the right place for them. Our modern residential treatment center is located in the desert mountains of Cave Creek to offer your teen a serene environment where they can focus on treatment. Our treatment approach is comprehensive and combines evidence-based and holistic treatment modalities. Our teen residential treatment center promotes healing and offers round-the-clock supervision for teens with severe mental health conditions.
Nexus Teen Academy offers a tailor-made treatment approach to ensure your teen’s needs are catered for and met. Apart from teen trauma therapy, we offer the following modalities:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Teen CBT is an evidence-based treatment approach that focuses on identifying and modifying distorted thought patterns. It is based on the idea that thoughts, emotions, and behaviors are connected. During therapy, your teen will be taught to change their thoughts. This will inevitably influence their behavior. CBT helps teens identify negative thought patterns and replace them with positive ones. Traumatic events can trap your teen in a cycle of negative thoughts. CBT will equip your teen with healthy emotional expression techniques like cognitive journaling to help them cope with triggering events.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
Teen DBT is related to CBT. It focuses on teaching mindfulness and emotional regulation. Mindfulness allows teens to reevaluate their experiences and make conscious choices about their behavior. DBT also teaches teens positive coping mechanisms, such as meditation, to help them regulate their emotions.
Holistic Treatment
Nexus Teen Academy utilizes various holistic or complementary approaches to treat trauma. During treatment, your teen will experience yoga and art therapies, which offer a healthy emotional outlet and foster emotional resilience.
If you are interested in learning more about our trauma therapy for teens, contact us today.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is the difference between regular therapy and trauma-focused therapy for teens?
The primary difference between regular therapy and trauma-focused care is what each treatment focuses on. Trauma-focused care targets traumatic events. It helps teens process their trauma and reduce symptoms like hyperventilation and flashbacks. Regular therapy addresses diverse mental health and behavioral issues. It can also be targeted for trauma. The choice of treatment depends on your teen’s needs.
How long does trauma-focused therapy for teens typically take?
Trauma-focused care can vary in length depending on your teen’s needs. Typically, treatment can take 6 to 12 weeks. However, depending on your teen’s progress, they may require additional sessions.
Are there any side effects or risks associated with trauma-focused therapy for teens?
Trauma-focused care can temporarily increase your teen’s anxiety and cause them emotional distress. This is normal as they revisit painful memories. However, a skilled therapist will manage these risks and ensure improved mental health outcomes in the long run.
Executive Director Hannah Carr-Unquera, LPC and Nexus Teen Academy
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Common Teen Trauma-Focused Therapy Techniques
FACT CHECKED
The Nexus Teen Academy editorial and clinical team is dedicated to providing informative and accurate content to help families who are struggling with adolescent behavioral health problems. The editorial team works directly with the clinical team to ensure information is accurate and up-to-date.
To do this, our team uses the following editorial guidelines:
Clinically reviewed by Executive Director Hannah Carr-Unquera, LPC
Executive Director Hannah Carr-Unquera, LPC
Hannah graduated from Arizona State University with her Bachelor’s in Psychology and Master’s in Counseling and is a Licensed Professional Counselor in Arizona. She began her work as a therapist 12 years ago in South Phoenix with an intensive outpatient program for teens and their families. She joined Nexus in the residential program as the clinical director, eventually being promoted to the executive director, creating and building the clinical program structure and a strong culture focused on redirecting the trajectory of young lives.
Published By Nexus Teen Academy
Nexus Teen Academy
The Nexus Teen Academy Editorial Staff is composed of writers, editors, and clinical reviewers with many years of experience writing about mental health and behavioral health treatment. Our team utilizes peer-reviewed, clinical studies from sources like SAMHSA to ensure we provide the most accurate and current information.
Published On February 24, 2025
Table of Contents
According to the National Center for PTSD, 5% of adolescents meet the criteria for PTSD, with the number of teens experiencing some form of trauma being higher. Teen trauma is a complicated emotion that is difficult to define. That said, professional treatment programs that incorporate trauma therapy for teens have been shown to help in both the short- and long-term.
Unaddressed trauma can have long-term effects on your teen’s social, physical, and emotional well-being. Their academic performance may decline, or they may begin abusing alcohol and other substances. Due to these consequences, professional mental health treatment is necessary.
At this point, you may be wondering, “What is trauma-focused therapy?” Trauma-focused therapy techniques use specialized treatment approaches that help teens identify and address underlying trauma. It allows teens to understand their trauma and how to deal with it. If you are looking for a teen trauma treatment program, contact our team at Nexus Teen Academy. We can provide immediate assistance through our residential program.
Therapeutic Techniques for Adolescent Trauma
Trauma is a complex emotional response to distressing events. Due to its complexity, various techniques were developed as part of trauma therapy for teens. These techniques include the following:
Prolonged Exposure (PE)
Prolonged exposure is a common psychotherapy technique that allows teens to face their fears. It is ideal for PTSD as it will teach your teen to face their trauma-related memories rather than avoid them. Teens with PTSD tend to avoid situations that would trigger their unpleasant memories. Avoiding negative stimuli can help in the short term but is a hindrance to recovering from PTSD. PE allows teens to gradually approach their trauma-related memories in a safe and controlled way. Learning to face one’s fears helps teens overcome PTSD.
PE can be conducted over twelve to fifteen sessions, each lasting between 90 and 120 minutes.
The first PE session involves your teen giving the therapist an overview of their experiences. This is usually the hard part since your teen may lack emotional regulation skills. In subsequent sessions, your teen will be asked to provide a list of people and places that trigger their trauma. Throughout treatment, your teen will gradually be exposed to these places and situations to desensitize them to these triggers. Your teen will also discuss their emotions as they learn emotional regulation and coping skills.
Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT)
This type of therapy aims to help your teen process their emotions properly. After experiencing a traumatic event, your teen may ‘get stuck’ in their thoughts. They cannot process emotions properly, making them wallow in negative emotions. CPT helps teens challenge their perspective and conceptualize their trauma. Like guided discovery, CPT helps teens base their emotions on facts. If facts do not support your teen’s negative thoughts, they will be taught to dispel them.
CPT utilizes the following techniques to help teens with PTSD:
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
Teen EMDR is a therapeutic approach developed in the 1980s and is one of the most useful forms of treatment when it comes to trauma and PTSD.
It is based on Adaptive Information Processing, a theory that analyses how the brain stores information and memories. This theory suggests that when your teen experiences a traumatic event, their brain stores memory in abnormal neural networks. This prevents healthy healing. EMDR relies on reprocessing to allow for healing. Your teen will access their traumatic memories and combine them with guided eye movements. This allows teens to process their emotions appropriately while repairing abnormal neural networks.
EMDR is an 8-phase treatment process. Each phase plays an important role in helping your teen heal. These phases include the following:
Trauma-Focused CBT (TF-CBT)
TF-CBT is a form of teen cognitive behavioral therapy that helps teens process traumatic events. It was developed in the 1990s as a way of targeting trauma in teens. TF-CBT helps teens identify and modify unhelpful and distorted thought patterns. It also helps them learn positive coping mechanisms to help them cope with triggering events.
TF-CBT uses various components to help teens regulate their emotions. These components include the following:
How Trauma-Focused Therapy Techniques Benefit Teens
Teen trauma therapy can be beneficial to those struggling with PTSD and the short- and long-term effects that come with this behavioral health problem. The benefits of trauma-focused therapy include the following:
Teen Trauma Therapy at Nexus Teen Academy
Nexus Teen Academy is a premier teen mental health treatment facility in Arizona. We offer high-quality treatment for teens with mental health and substance abuse issues. If your teen has experienced trauma, Nexus is the right place for them. Our modern residential treatment center is located in the desert mountains of Cave Creek to offer your teen a serene environment where they can focus on treatment. Our treatment approach is comprehensive and combines evidence-based and holistic treatment modalities. Our teen residential treatment center promotes healing and offers round-the-clock supervision for teens with severe mental health conditions.
Nexus Teen Academy offers a tailor-made treatment approach to ensure your teen’s needs are catered for and met. Apart from teen trauma therapy, we offer the following modalities:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Teen CBT is an evidence-based treatment approach that focuses on identifying and modifying distorted thought patterns. It is based on the idea that thoughts, emotions, and behaviors are connected. During therapy, your teen will be taught to change their thoughts. This will inevitably influence their behavior. CBT helps teens identify negative thought patterns and replace them with positive ones. Traumatic events can trap your teen in a cycle of negative thoughts. CBT will equip your teen with healthy emotional expression techniques like cognitive journaling to help them cope with triggering events.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
Teen DBT is related to CBT. It focuses on teaching mindfulness and emotional regulation. Mindfulness allows teens to reevaluate their experiences and make conscious choices about their behavior. DBT also teaches teens positive coping mechanisms, such as meditation, to help them regulate their emotions.
Holistic Treatment
Nexus Teen Academy utilizes various holistic or complementary approaches to treat trauma. During treatment, your teen will experience yoga and art therapies, which offer a healthy emotional outlet and foster emotional resilience.
If you are interested in learning more about our trauma therapy for teens, contact us today.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
The primary difference between regular therapy and trauma-focused care is what each treatment focuses on. Trauma-focused care targets traumatic events. It helps teens process their trauma and reduce symptoms like hyperventilation and flashbacks. Regular therapy addresses diverse mental health and behavioral issues. It can also be targeted for trauma. The choice of treatment depends on your teen’s needs.
Trauma-focused care can vary in length depending on your teen’s needs. Typically, treatment can take 6 to 12 weeks. However, depending on your teen’s progress, they may require additional sessions.
Trauma-focused care can temporarily increase your teen’s anxiety and cause them emotional distress. This is normal as they revisit painful memories. However, a skilled therapist will manage these risks and ensure improved mental health outcomes in the long run.