I’m Just Trying to Feel Something Else: Chemical Misuse in Adopted Adolescents

Join us for Coffee, Donuts, and an In-Person Training

Date/Time: Saturday May 31, 2025, 10:30 am – 12:30 pm

Location: St. Cloud Public Library; 1300 W St Germain St, St Cloud, MN 56301

Mental health symptoms and chemical abuse are more common during the adolescent years. When these concerns are combined with attachment disruptions, special challenges face the adolescents, but also their families and clinicians. Attendees will learn the basics of the adolescent brain, attachment-based parenting, and the negative effects of chemical abuse; explore the common reasons adolescents abuse chemicals; process the complex relationship between attachment disruptions and chemical abuse; and learn interventions for addressing chemical abuse in adolescents using an attachment and trauma-informed lens.

Presented by Adam Arnold, MA, LMFT, LADC

Adam Arnold is a licensed psychotherapist, trainer, and consultant with Enliven Psychotherapy in Saint Paul, MN. Central to Adam’s clinical work is gaining consent for psychotherapy from all of his clients – ensuring that they are driving their goals for treatment – regardless of their age. Adam spent over a decade combining his passions for healing and the arts, serving as Founder and Artistic Director of blank slate theatre, a personal growth-oriented theatre for adolescents in Saint Paul, Minnesota. While there, he collaborated with culturally and ability diverse adolescents to produce over two dozen theatre pieces centering on themes of mental health and social change, including the award-winning DISORDERED [thy name is teenager], and BOTTOM, a play on child sex trafficking. Adam also was proud to serve as chair of the “Safe Schools, Safe Students Conference,” which sought to address mental health issues in schools, innovate family involvement with schools, soothe peer aggression, and eliminate school shootings.