Troubled Teen Help Directory
Looking for a teen help program?
Call (866) 845-1390
Fat Camp
Learn about why fat camps don’t work and why the new healthy weight loss camps are so much more effective. more >>
Featured Programs
Turn-About Ranch
As a parent you are often challenged by outside influences that threaten your child's emotional and behavioral development. Imagine a place where old-time values such as honesty, respect, teamwork, and accountability are the standard. Turn-About Ranch is such a place. Teens thrive in the unique environment of this spirited working cow-and-horse ranch. As they get back to basics, they are challenged to examine their values and recognize how their poor choices have impacted their lives.
Turn-About Ranch features a hard-hitting, high-impact residential program works wonders with defiant teens where the experience of the ranch setting has a powerful real-world impact.
Learn more about Turn-About Ranch >>
Adirondack Leadership Expeditions
Adirondack Leadership Expeditions is a character development wilderness program for troubled teens that promotes personal growth through a focus on insight-oriented experiences. The forested, mountain setting removes urban distractions and simplifies options to help students gain insight into their core values and accept responsibility for their choices. Our wilderness program's nurturing approach helps participants address personal issues, achieve success in a safe environment, and develop their leadership potential.
Learn more about Adirondack Leadership Expeditions >>
Help Teen Boys Manage Anger by Staying Cool, Expert Advises
An expert on adolescent male anger advises parents to avoid playing the cop and to avoid getting angry themselves when their sons lose their tempers.
Dr. Michael Currie, author of Doing Anger Differently: Helping Adolescent Boys, says that anger is contagious and parents should resist it.
Teenage boys often are stuck in a "poor me" story in which they are victims of themselves and others. Many of the mothers who consult with Dr. Currie at the University of Newcastle in Australia tell him that their "obedient loving boys suddenly turned into raging men." The teens, in turn, tell him "everything would be fine if only she'd shut up." Dr. Currie believes a lot of the anger comes from broken families and a lack of participation from boys' fathers.
In Dr. Currie's experience, it often takes years to help an angry teen and to prevent him from turning into an angry, hostile adult. The key is to help your child find a goal for his life by listening and "digging to find the dream."
"Any adolescent is angry to some extent," Dr. Currie believes. "Anger is a deforming monster but also an ally that allows a boy to say things that otherwise would not be said."
He advises parents to put themselves in their son's place, acknowledge his anger but not appease it, even as you keep your cool.
Return to the Teen Help Directory >>