Choosing The Right Funeral Home

How To Help A Teen Stop Acting Out With Grief Counseling

29 August 2016

Derek Murphy

Experiencing a death in the family is likely the worst thing that ever happened in your teenager's life, and it can completely turn reality as they've known it on its head. It can lead to psychological problems, so even formerly well-behaved young people may start to act out in the aftermath of a death. If they are acting out after losing a loved one, grief counseling can help your teen deal with their pain and integrate it into their life so that it no longer controls their behavior. Here's how you can help a teenager get help through grief counseling and get the most out of the experience.

Talk About What Needs to Be Addressed

Be sure to explain to your teenager that you find some of their behavior to be unacceptable. Explain how you think that they have been acting out and suggest that they discuss these things within the grief counseling session. The counselor will have the expertise to decide how to best approach things from there, but knowing what the problem is can help your teenager address the issues more immediately in therapy. Beyond the initial problem of acting out lies all the pain that still needs to be processed and integrated in the teenager's life.

Respect The Teen's Privacy

A teenager's relationship to their grief counselor is an important one, but it may be difficult for your teen to trust at first. Be sure to respect their privacy within the counseling session. You may ask a couple of open-ended questions about it, but be sure to reassure your teen that what is said in the session is confidential. Explain that you understand that they are under no obligation to share the details of a session with you, but express your interest in hearing whatever they'd like to share about it.

Offer Alternatives to Bad Behaviors

As your teenager is working through their emotional issues in grief counseling, you can also be proactive about kicking bad behaviors to the curb. Try to offer your teenager alternatives to the acting out. Try to plan something fun for you to do with your teen at times that they may hang out with friends who are a bad influence. When you take the initiative to offer to plan an activity, you are showing your support in action. Be consistent and persistent when it comes to helping your teen change their behavior as they go through therapy.

Finally, keep in mind that the length of time that your teenager may need grief counseling will depend on a variety of factors. Some teens may only need to see a grief counselor for a short amount of time, while others spend months or even years working through the death of a loved one. No matter how long it takes, they will become empowered when they deal with the emotional and the behavioral problems that arise because of it. For more information, contact a funeral home like Brown Funeral Home.

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