Teen / Adolescent Therapy

Does your teen:           

Have trouble at school?

Sulk?
Act negative and grouchy?
Feel alienated from the family or from peers?
Feel misunderstood?

Adolescence is a challenging time for both teens and their parents.  Teens sometimes have a hard time understanding why they do what they do.  Adolescence is a period of rapid intellectual, social, and emotional change as teens struggle to move from dependent child to independent adult.  For the teen, it is a time of asserting a separateness from the parents as the teen tries to figure out their own individual identity.  For parents it is a balancing act between allowing your child to make his/her own decisions necessary to grow and providing guidance to a child still needing adult input. This transition period can be a scary and volatile time for both parent and child.  Parents often need to learn how to communicate and support their teen in a different way than they learned from their own parents.  Teens often need help learning assertiveness, responsibility and decision-making so they can make the transition safely.  Therapy can provide a neutral and supportive environment to navigate these issues.

Because normal behaviors vary from one childhood stage to another, it can be difficult to tell whether a child is just going through a temporary "phase" or is suffering from depression or other significant emotional problem.  Sometimes the parents become worried about how the child's behavior has changed, or a teacher mentions that "your child doesn't seem to be himself.”