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"The Life Enhancement Center program is a great asset to the delinquent youth in Utah. The focus on evidence-based treatment models, gender-specific treatment, and collaboration with schools and juvenile justice is commendable, and so needed.”
-Dr. Lisa Boesky,
Author of When to Worry: How to Tell if Your Teen Needs Help and What to Do About It and The Secret Cut: Understanding Self-Injury & Teens
Life Enhancement Center specializes in the treatment of adolescents with emotional and behavioral problems, particularly those who are court involved or incarceration bound. 90-day treatment services include:
1. Weekly individual and group therapy.
This includes use of established Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to reduce criminal thinking, teach problem solving skills, and resolve psychological disorders (anxiety, depression, ADHD, trauma, and substance abuse). Life Enhancement Center provides gender specific treatment and follows guidelines established by the Adolescent Female Advocacy Network (AFAN) of the State of Utah Department of Juvenile Justice Services. Female juvenile offenders present with different treatment needs than male juvenile offenders, justifying trauma-focused, emotion-regulation, and relational-based interventions. Life Enhancement Center mental health counselors are certified in Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) and use Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) to effectively treat female offenders presenting with emerging borderline personality, suicide-self harm behaviors, body image/eating problems, and history of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse.
2. Weekly family therapy.
Life Enhancement Center therapists use Multidimensional Family Therapy (MDFT), a reputable and scientifically proven family-based treatment developed for conduct-disordered problems and for substance abuse prevention with adolescents. The treatment seeks to significantly reduce or eliminate the adolescent's substance abuse and other criminal problem behavior, and to improve overall family functioning. For the parent(s), objectives include facilitating parental commitment and investment; improving the overall relationship and day-to-day communication between parent(s) and adolescent; and increased knowledge about and changes in parenting practices (e.g., limit-setting, monitoring, appropriate autonomy granting, and consistent discipline). There are two intermediate intervention goals for every family: helping the adolescent achieve an interdependent attachment bond to parents and family, and helping the adolescent forge durable connections with pro-social influences such as schools, peer groups, and recreational and religious institutions.
Our therapists also use Parent Management Training (PMT), an evidence-based behavioral approach to the treatment of oppositional, aggressive, and defiant behavior in juveniles, in which a therapist works directly with a parent. The basic PMT format consists of 12-session instruction by the therapist in parenting techniques, role-playing and practice sessions, and homework assignments for the parent to practice with the youth. Positive parenting practices, such as support, warmth, and consistent supervision and discipline, increase the chances of a healthy, problem-free adolescent.
3. Weekly drug testing.
Life Enhancement Center supports adolescent sobriety through random drug testing that screens for use of marijuana, cocaine, benzodiazepines, amphetamines, and opiates. We pride ourselves in using Redwood Toxicology Lab to analyze urine samples. This provides scientifically accurate results that indicate precise levels of drug use and detect if an adolescent is "flushing" their system (excessive fluid intake or use of niacin).
4. Telephonic monitoring and sober tracking.
Life Enhancement Center is the only authorized agent in Utah to use ShadowTrack, the newest tool available to court involved youth. ShadowTrack is a highly engineered interactive voice response system coupled with voice-biometric authentication technology. The system automatically tracks juveniles with random scheduled inbound or outbound calls from any authorized telephone. The tracking system validates the location as well as authenticates a juvenile’s identity by comparing their voice to a voiceprint taken during the intake process. The system is multi-lingual and detects intoxication.