Teen Therapy

Is Your Teen Struggling With Their Mental And Emotional Health?

Are you the parent of a teen who is anxious, depressed, or distressed?
Has your teen exhibited behaviors that cause you to worry about their academic success, social life, or safety in general?
When you try to intervene, are you met with resistance?

Adolescence can be a difficult period of life. As your teen resolves who they want to be, they may individuate from you in ways that you do not always agree with.

Whether they have become defiant, withdrawn, or apathetic, you may be worried they are slipping away from you.

A Teen’s Challenges Are Specific To Them

Aside from common growing pains, you may seriously wonder if your teen is struggling with a mental health condition and/or disability. Perhaps they demonstrate anxious, perfectionist tendencies, causing them to be unnecessarily hard on themselves. Or maybe they no longer find joy and motivation in the activities that once energized them.

If your teen has encountered ongoing struggles at school or with their peers, you may wonder if there is an underlying developmental explanation. Or you might find it nearly impossible to get them to do their chores or homework as they lack organization, initiative, and time management skills. And if they have trouble connecting with others, perhaps you are concerned about their social abilities.

Regardless of your teen’s experiences or challenges, a counselor can be a meaningful resource for them throughout their developmental journey. By learning to explore their distress, identify their strengths, and enhance their life skills in therapy, your teen can become the healthiest, most confident version of themself possible.

Teens Typically Experience A Wide Range Of Emotional, Behavioral, And Developmental Setbacks

Anxiety, depression, and behavioral disorders are often the leading causes of illness and disability among teens. Furthermore, failing to address teenager’s mental health conditions can have consequences that extend into adulthood, impairing their physical and emotional health and restricting their opportunities to lead fulfilling lives.

Beyond depression, anxiety, and behavioral disorders, other conditions tend to appear during adolescence, including:

Social anxiety
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Learning disabilities

The adolescent mental and behavioral health crisis in this country has become an epidemic. And if left unaddressed, it will continue to impact each generation of teens as they grow into adults.

The Reasons So Many Teens Are Struggling Are Numerous

On top of the tumultuous nature of growing up, today’s teenagers have to contend with challenges that previous generations simply did not encounter. The constant presence of technology has exposed today’s youth to elements of adulthood that their parents (or grandparents) were shielded from at their age.

With issues like online bullying and school-related gun violence on the rise, it is no wonder that teens feel anxious, uncertain, and unsafe. Not to mention, the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically impacted how teens participate in academic, extracurricular, and social activities. For many adolescents these days, life probably feels like a constant stream of bad news and endless pressures.

As parents, we can inadvertently intensify these feelings as we monitor our children’s behavior and enforce a strict set of rules designed to keep them safe and “on track” in life. While we might view these measures as protective, teens may feel limited, restricted, and unseen on their unique developmental journey. Rather than looking to us for guidance, they may turn away or believe that they can handle obstacles on their own.

Working with a therapist can be your teen’s safe haven. With the help of our team, your teen—and you—can feel more prepared to overcome the many challenges that accompany this period of life.

Therapy Can Help Teens Build Essential Life Skills To Thrive

Teens are often stuck at an impasse between wanting to do what is expected of them and wanting to chart their own path. A therapist can serve as a model for your teen as they help to uncover core emotional experiences, deepen connections, and facilitate skills that will allow them to be successful in all areas of life.

While you, the parent, will be involved to a degree, your teen’s therapist is likely to meet with them one-on-one and schedule check-ins with you between sessions. We view your teen as being in control of their therapy, but we want to ensure that you and your family feel secure and confident with the process as well.

What You Can Expect In Therapy Sessions

In sessions, we will help your teen to understand, regulate, and process their emotions in a healthy way. As unbiased, nonjudgmental clinicians, our sole purpose is to provide emotional and mental support for your adolescent.

Overall, we typically aim to…

guide teens in slowing down their emotional responses and identifying unhelpful thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
help teens feel more in control of their stress and anxiety levels.
encourage teens to engage with their challenges and develop creative solutions and perspectives.
provide teens with the ability to restructure their story and self-perception.

Meeting The Needs Of Your Teen With Customized Therapeutic Solutions

Our therapists are highly skilled in applying a range of effective, evidence-based treatment approaches. We will customize the counseling process and incorporate the therapy techniques that are deemed most fitting for the unique needs of each teenage client.

Using a combination of treatment methods, our counselors have guided teens of all backgrounds and abilities in identifying their values, strengths, and goals. With this kind of information, therapy can offer your teen new and affirming perspectives on how to meaningfully become the person they want to be.

And in the process, you can look forward to improving the connection between you and your teen along the way.

Perhaps You Are Interested In Teen Therapy, But You Still Have Some Concerns...

I doubt I can get my teen to agree to therapy.

It is certainly possible to encounter resistance when it comes to trying to get teens to agree to counseling. If your teen seems unwilling to engage in counseling, we gladly give them a chance to ask any questions and get more comfortable with our skilled, nonjudgmental therapists and the therapy process as a whole. In our experience, if we can get your teen to participate in just one therapy session, they probably see the benefit of working with a counselor and want to resume.

Will I have a chance to learn about what my teen is discussing in therapy?

The therapeutic process is designed to protect the integrity and privacy of each client. Though there are some limits to confidentiality in teen counseling (limits that we will discuss with you ahead of time), we believe that maintaining the trust of our teen clients is an essential part of this process.

Therefore, we will involve you in therapy sessions when necessary, depending on your teen’s comfort level and needs. Notwithstanding, we will keep you informed throughout the course of therapy to make sure that we are all in agreement.

I am worried that counseling will be too time-consuming.

Every client is different, which means that the length of time in therapy will vary from teen to teen. Once we get a sense of your teenager’s presenting concerns, we will have a better idea of how long they should expect to be in counseling.

Arm Your Teen With The Skills And Perspectives They Need To Flourish

If your teen is struggling with mental, behavioral, or developmental challenges, counseling can be a safe place for them to process their experiences and build essential life skills. Please feel free to contact us if you would like more information about how our specialists can help.