About Northern Pines Mental Health – Brainerd – Brainerd
Northern Pines Mental Health is a mental health facility located in Brainerd, Minnesota. They are a private facility that treats adults and adolescents with substance use disorder (SUD) on an outpatient basis. They treat people who suffer from addiction issues and mental health issues at the same time.
They will give you a full assessment to determine the type of therapy that is right for you. A clinician will ask you questions about your substance use and your mental health history. They will give you a drug test as well.
Their group therapy is age specific. They have groups for people who are between the ages of 13 and 17 and one for those 18 and up. This is because people feel most comfortable talking about delicate subjects with those with whom they have a lot in common.
Families are heavily involved in the treatment of adolescents with SUD. Parents will be able to speak with their child’s doctor regularly. Family members of adolescents and adults are invited to come in every six weeks for family sessions.
You will also have individual therapy sessions here. They use several different methodologies to treat SUD. They often use cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) which teaches you to think in a less negative and more realistic way. This can be effective because changing a person’s thought process often changes dangerous behaviors.
If you have a co-occurring disorder, you may be treated with dialectical behavior therapy which is an offshoot of CBT. It teaches people who experience emotions very strongly to accept their circumstances and work to change their attitude toward those circumstances.