Teen Therapy
Is Your Teen Hurting, But You Feel Powerless To Help Them?
Have you noticed a negative change in your teen’s behavior lately?
Does it feel like your teen is pulling away from you?
Do you worry that they’re suffering from depression, anxiety, difficult family issues, or a traumatic event?
Maybe your teen is avoiding responsibilities by isolating and playing video games all the time. Or perhaps they’re falling behind in school because of lack of focus, emotional or behavioral issues, or ADHD. Your teen may be struggling to make friends, have poor body image, and suffer from low self-esteem, which has led to a decreased appetite or thoughts of self-harm. There may be trauma or sexual, physical, or emotional abuse in their past, making it difficult for them to trust others.
Whatever the issue, your once cheerful teen is now losing their cool, slamming doors and yelling and screaming. As a result, you may find yourself considering a teen therapist.
Watching Your Teen Struggle Can Be Heartbreaking
As the parent, you want to protect your teen from all the painful parts of life and help them work through their troubles. When you see your child struggle with anxiety, depression, or anger issues , you want to be there for them. But sometimes their issues are so big that you don’t know how to make things better.
No matter what’s causing your teenager pain, you care about them more than words can say. Though they may not see themselves as good enough, loveable, and cool, you would like nothing more than for them to feel happy, accepted, and loved. A therapist specializing in counseling teens can show you how to support your child and help them find joy again.
A Teenager’s Life Is Much More Challenging In Today’s World
Everyone is struggling these days—that includes teens. They are often faced with more serious real-world issues that affect their future than previous generations. In comparison with other age groups, teens have significantly higher rates of anxiety and depression than the general population. For example, compared to 19.1 percent of adults, a staggering 31.9 percent of teens between 12 and 18 are affected by anxiety disorders.*
None of these figures are surprising. After all, today’s teens have to reckon with unprecedented levels of stress. Between a global pandemic, political unrest, and the prevalence of mass shootings, many teens feel anxious, confused, and overwhelmed.
On top of all that, today’s teens face intense pressure from social media to look beautiful and have their lives together. All over their social media timelines, they see other kids partying, vacationing, and getting into happy relationships. This creates a “compare-and-despair” culture—they compare themselves to other people and worry that their lives don’t measure up. In this way, social media creates the illusion that they’re the only ones struggling.
Counseling can help your teen realize that they are not alone. Millions of adolescents are struggling just like they are. And with the right help and support, they can improve their self-esteem, reduce their stress, and live a life that is more authentically their own.
Therapy Can Help Your Teen Find Joy And Believe In Their Own Value
As badly as you want to help your teenager, they may not feel comfortable telling you what’s going on. This is why counseling is so vital. A therapist can act as an unbiased presence in your teen’s life, giving them a safe space to be themselves and share their feelings without any fear of judgment.
In therapy sessions with your teen, we’ll help them work through anxiety, depression, ADHD, trauma, anger issues, school troubles, relationship problems, low self-esteem, and all the other challenges of the teenage years. We’ll give them the skills to soothe their stress, reduce their impulsivity, and build their confidence.
The Teen Therapy Process
At the Place for Counseling, we realize that every teen is different and we will come up with a treatment plan that’s uniquely catered to your teen. Some of the approaches that we use with teens are listed below:
Play Therapy – This approach combines play, art, and other experiential activities to help teens connect with the emotional centers of their brain to explore issues on a deeper level. It also can be much more comfortable for teens than engaging in purely “talk therapy.”
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy – CBT helps teens recognize how their thought patterns influence their emotions and behavior. It can help them challenge negative beliefs (such as “I’m not good enough” or “No one will ever love me”) and create a more empowering and affirming view of themselves.
Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy – This approach is a trauma-specific version of CBT. It uses mindfulness skills and cognitive restructuring strategies to help teens heal from painful past experiences.
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy – DBT can help teens address interpersonal conflicts, manage their emotions and behaviors, and take responsibility for their actions.
Accelerated Resolution Therapy – ART can help reduce the effects of trauma by reprocessing how the brain stores traumatic memories and imagery.
How You, As The Parent, Can Participate In Your Teen’s Therapy
At the Place for Counseling, we always start the therapeutic process by meeting with the parents first. If you and your partner are divorced or separated, we will offer to meet with each of you separately. During the initial meeting, we will explore your teen’s history, explain the therapy process to you, and answer any questions you may have. We can also make suggestions about how to discuss counseling with your teen so they may be more open to the process.
Sometimes, when parents and teens are experiencing conflict and communication issues, family therapy is helpful. In this case, we can have sessions with you and your teen together so that we can address the issues directly with a supportive therapist.
At the Place for Counseling, we’ve helped hundreds of teens and families successfully work through their struggles and find happiness and harmony again. We would love to help you, too!
Maybe You’re Thinking About Counseling For Your Teen, But You Still Have Questions…
What if my teen doesn’t want to go to counseling?
Many of the teens we see start out hesitant about therapy—only to end up pleasantly surprised at how helpful sessions are. Unlike most adults in their life, we’re not going to judge them or tell them how to behave. We’re here to help them live life on their own terms and find the answers within themselves. In the initial session, your teen’s therapist can walk you through strategies to explain therapy in ways that might help a resistant teen be more receptive.
My teen’s schedule is really busy and so is mine. I am not sure this will work for our family.
To accommodate busy families, we offer sessions during the day, the evening, and even on Saturdays, too. That said, the needs of your teen may mean that something has to give for a while. After all, being too busy can actually add to your teen’s stress.
Is it my fault that my teen is struggling?
As parents, we do the best we can, but we are not perfect. The issues and pressure facing teens today can be overwhelming for them—and for parents, too. We can’t always protect our children from painful experiences in life. However, we can support them through tough times. Giving your teen the chance to connect with a trained and experienced therapist is the best way to ensure that they have support during this challenging time.
Let Us Help Your Teen Grow Into The Best Version Of Themselves
Helping teens and families is what we do best! If your teen is struggling and you don’t know how to help, please feel free to contact us and talk with one of our therapists. We offer a free, 20-minute consultation so you can ask questions and get a sense of the therapy process.
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