Adolescent/Parenting counseling

 Adolescence is a time of change, growth, and seeking independence.  When dealing with the pressure of school, parents, friends, and fitting in with peers, teen-aged life can feel overwhelming.  Some of the signs an adolescent may not be coping well are depression, anxiety, excessive worry, anger outbursts, isolating, compulsive behavior, alcohol and /or substance abuse, friendship issues, family problems, eating issues, problems in school, suicide thoughts/attempts, and self-harming behavior. 

Something to note: Teens show that they are depressed differently than adults and in addition to low mood will also show heightened anger, outbursts, irritability and isolation from friends. 

When working with adolescence sometimes it is necessary and important to bring in the parents and or whole family to help the individual. This is done at the beginning of the first session to gain insight as to the perceptions of the presenting issue or issues. After having had built up a rapport and trusting alliance with the client, the parent(s), guardians, and or family may be invited to a session if deemed necessary. The idea is to help families learn how to communicate effectively, resolve conflict, and understand their family dynamics in order to elicit positive change. Other reasons they may be invited to a session includes the teen's desire to repair frazzled relationships, learn coping skills, or share information with the family with the help of a third party like a counselor. The overall goal is healing.  

When working with adolescence it is important that the adolescent feel they are in a safe and confidential space, or they may not open up completely with their therapist. Working with this group of individuals I will have the parents sign a "right to confidentiality disclosure". This is not to shut parents out of the process but rather as a way for teens to feel safe to open up. The only time information would be disclosed would be if the individual is harming themselves, harming someone else, knows someone that is getting harmed or will be getting harmed, or if the teen would like information shared with the parent. If there is information that a client shared with me that would be of benefit to their healing, I will encourage them to share information with the parent or family.  As a parent myself I understand the difficulties with this but in my experience it is very important to the counseling process. 

Fun fact: Children/Teens decide to not share information for a variety of reasons but the most common are because they don't want to hurt their parents, see them sad, don't want to disappoint them, think their parents cannot handle the information or the teen does not know how to articulate their feelings and or process their emotions. I help to bridge those gaps and bridge communication. I help individuals process information and teach them interpersonal skills and how to communicate in a productive way. 

I am not a licensed family therapist and do not do family counseling, but I do work individually with parents to help them work through parenting issues by providing strategies and skills in coping, communication, behavioral, and other changes that may help facilitate change. I help parents navigate through the struggles and feelings that occur with parenting and teach strategies on how to work with teens without anger, blame, and avoidance but love and respect while taking care of themselves and creating healthy boundaries.