Strengthening Social and Emotional Skills to Help Adolescents Cope with Trauma

Have you come to a crossroads where you are unsure how to support your child? Do you feel like your parenting skills are inadequate and like you’ve lost hope for the future? Is each day a struggle to get your child out of bed to go to school?

If your child is displaying troubling or explosive behavior at home, has trouble with daily social and life skills, and you receive daily calls from their school about their actions – there may be a deeper issue. They might be experiencing underlying symptoms of trauma. If you need help, turn to LOGOS School, where you are not alone and can receive the support for your child that your family needs. 

Signs of Trauma 

Adolescents who experience trauma may display the following symptoms:

• Feel disconnected from others
• Express an inability to focus
• Have nightmares 
• Display impulsive behaviors
• Struggle in a classroom setting 
• Present with mental illness

It is possible that your child may have been exposed to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). ACEs are traumatic experiences that occur before 18 years of age. ACEs include abuse, neglect and household challenges. Without intervention or the presence of protective factors, ACEs can impact several areas over the course of a person’s lifespan. These experiences have both short-term and long-term effects. 

Effects of Trauma 

Short-term effects can include your child struggling to utilize life skills and regulate emotions. It can also include a decrease in focus, an increase of stress and lack of sleep. 

Long-term effects include disrupted neurodevelopment, social, emotional, and cognitive impairment and the development of health-risk behaviors. 

How LOGOS Can Help

If you feel that your child may have been exposed to adverse childhood experiences, you have come to the right place. LOGOS is at the forefront of therapeutic schools in the St. Louis region with a commitment to fostering a trauma-responsive community. We understand that through creating safe and secure relationships, expressing empathy, viewing the whole child and partnering with families to increase resilience, you can increase student success and instill hope for the future. 

Within our school community, we understand that beneath each child’s behavior, there is a deeper story and understanding waiting to be explored. With this lens, we can see the true essence of the child and help them use the resilience they already possess to create hope for the future they may have never imagined. Through individual and group therapy, our students begin to process their experiences that led to school refusal or that impede their daily functioning and begin to develop life skills.

Academics are individualized and classroom sizes, on average, have a six to one student to teacher ratio. Therapists and teachers collaborate to ensure we view our students holistically and are not dismayed by what presents on the surface. We meet students and families where they are to grow and learn with them; providing light in their darkness.

Navigating this journey with your child is a process and does not change overnight. Sleepless nights, worries and moments of defeat can happen often and be draining. Community, support, education, hope and care are essential to maintain the course, so consider joining a school community that you can call family.

LOGOS School is an independent academic and therapeutic school that serves the greater St. Louis region. Our unique program and environment benefit students in grades 6 to 12 whose intellectual and emotional needs have not been met in a traditional classroom. Through individualized academics, innovative one-on-one counseling and group therapy, as well as parent involvement, we help our students navigate their daily life challenges while preparing them for college or a career.