Mental Health Grant Awarded for Tahoe Teens and Preteens

A Balanced Life: Individual, Family and Child Therapy, Inc. (ABL) is excited to announce that we are a recipient of the Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative (CYBHI) Round 2: Trauma-Informed Programs & Practices Grant through the DHCS. This funding will allow for free access to both individual and family therapy and group skills classes that will equip youths 11-19 with valuable, concrete skills to manage stress, emotions, thoughts, communication, and relationships in healthier ways.

A Balanced Life is a private therapy group practice with six highly skilled therapists who are trained in implementing various trauma-informed, evidence-based forms of individual, couples and family therapy. The therapists at A Balanced Life provide services to children ages 5 and older, teens, and adults. A Balanced Life has a positive reputation in the South Lake Tahoe community for providing quality therapy in a supportive environment with responsive and empathic support staff and therapists. ABL also has a “no wrong door approach”, meaning if we can’t help you, we will help find who in the community might be able to and provide referrals and guidance to help you or your family get their needs met.

The mental health services ABL will be providing for teens will be utilizing an evidence-based form of therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), which was developed by Dr. Marsha Linehan in the 1980's to support those with traumatic histories and serious emotional dysregulation. Dialectical Behavioral Therapy has since been known to be an effective evidenced-based treatment to help people develop skills to tolerate distress, regulate their emotions, strengthen interpersonal relationships and decision-making skills, and cultivate mindfulness. Teens and preteens who learn these skills are likely to have healthier, more connected relationships, mental peace, ability to cope with daily struggles, and success in their school, family and personal life. Early equipping and intervention is essential and can change the trajectory of a young person's life.

From May 2024- June 2025, ABL will be providing DBT-I individual therapy for youths and, if appropriate, their families through referrals from their school counselors. We will also be providing mental health skills groups at various sites in the community from June 2024- May 2025. These sites will include A Balanced Life, South Tahoe High School, The Boys and Girls Club, Mt. Tallac, and South Tahoe Middle School. Summer groups will be held at ABL and The Boys and Girls Club June-August 2024. All of these services will be free of charge.

These DBT groups and services have shown great success globally in helping youth specifically struggling with mood disorders, behavioral problems, big emotional reactions, school problems, interpersonal problems, stress, substance abuse, family conflict, trauma, self-harm, anxiety, and other emerging and existing behavioral health challenges.

If you believe your student would be a good fit for the grant program, you can reach out to their assigned school counselor to make a referral. For questions regarding the services at A Balanced Life, you can call our office at (530) 544-1748 or email our Office Manager, Terra Matzke, at terra@abalancedlifetahoe.com.

We are thrilled to support our community through providing these mental health services and believe they will have an invaluable healing impact on the lives of our teens and families who participate.