Support during the teenage years
Working with teens requires a very different approach than when I work with children or adults. Developing trust with an adolescent is essentially important. I have found effective ways to develop a balance between a teens’ need for privacy while still being about to offer advice to address parent’s concerns. I am able to support the adolescents’ unique goals for therapy while still being able to support parental challenges. Some teens are the ones seeking therapy support themselves. With others teens, they may feel like they are being told they need to attend.
The adolescent years are full of stress. The pressures of academic demands, struggling to find support from friends, heightened awareness about who we are vs. who we want to be, decisions about what we share with others about ourselves, feeling disconnected from others, misunderstood by family, complications with dating, and on and on. If on top of all this we also have overwhelming feelings from depression, anxiety, or trauma can often lead us to unhealthy ways of coping. That is where therapy can help. Having a supportive relationship outside your family and friends to process all theses issues can allow perspectives to shift, healing to happen, and adaptive coping strategies to develop for a healthy enjoyable life.
