Therapy for Teens

Are You Feeling Isolated And Overwhelmed By The Growing Pains Of Young Adulthood?

Are you a teen or young adult navigating family issues, relationship setbacks, or obstacles to your mental health?

Do you feel like you can’t open up to others about your feelings or that no one understands your struggles? 

No longer a child but not entirely independent, you may be struggling with elements of your identity as you grow into adulthood. Wanting both freedom and responsibility, you may experience fear, self-doubt, or confusion as you attempt to separate your values and goals from those of your parents. Though you know that they’re here to support you on your path to independence, you might sometimes feel as though you’re being treated like a child. 

It could be that other challenges in your life have caused you to feel depressed or anxious. Physical symptoms like insomnia and muscle tension keep you from being relaxed. And undergoing the academic and social pressures of school, you may often feel restless, edgy, and unsure. But because you feel a need to be independent, you may withdraw from others or avoid your emotions. 

As a result, your relationships might suffer. You are growing into your own person, so some of your friendships may seem volatile or distant. Or perhaps you have lost an interest in maintaining your familial relationships. It’s possible you feel pressured to hide your true self from your friends and family in an effort to avoid conflict and disappointment. 

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As A Parent, You Naturally Want To Protect Your Child From Emotional Hardship

If you are the parent of a teen who struggles with depression or other mental health issues, you may feel an urgent need to fix their problems. Perhaps you worry that you have contributed to their distress somehow, or maybe you feel lost and helpless that you can’t get through to your child. Yet, it’s important to honor your child’s vulnerability and authenticity during this difficult time—giving them the space they need to explore and understand their emotions and experiences. 

Therapy offers a safe, nonjudgmental atmosphere to come and just be. By counseling our young adult clients with a sense of openness and mutual respect, therapy can help teens develop lifelong skills for overcoming anxiety, depression, and other hurdles to mental health. 

There Is A Lot To Process During The Transition Into Adulthood

As a developing teenager, your nervous system and stress responses are still evolving. Like all of us humans, you are constantly scanning your environment for threats to your well-being. And threats can be anything—from perceived bodily danger to interpersonal conflict to the loss of control. When a possible threat is detected, you go into what’s called “fight-or-flight,” which means that your nervous system either shuts down or remains in a heightened state that is ultimately unsustainable. 

Unfortunately, some of the fight-or-flight signals may have been misinterpreted or ignored by those around you. Wanting to demonstrate a certain degree of control, autonomy, and self-assurance, however, you may not outwardly show your emotional pain or struggles. 

Not to mention, being a teen often involves some growing pains that are specific to this age group. You are at a time in life wherein academic and social pressures are rampant—regularly wrapped up in the expectations to succeed in school and fit in with your peers. Social media has complicated these challenges in promoting a comparison culture that constantly pushes you to evaluate your accomplishments against others’. 

Furthermore, you may experience conflict and hardship at home, making it difficult to ask for help. Your parents may be either distracted or hyper-focused on you, causing you to feel like you can’t get the support you need. Or perhaps you experience frequent conflict and misunderstanding with friends and siblings. Feeling disconnected from those around you, you may be worried that you’d burden others if you were honest about your struggles. 

But you don’t have to feel alone during this transitional period of life. In therapy, you can have a space that belongs to you where you can feel free to share, explore, and process your experiences. 

At Insights Counseling Center, We Specialize In Therapy For Teens And Young Adults

Though you may feel isolated by symptoms of depression, anxiety, and distress, the truth is that these are incredibly common obstacles for teens. Counseling can help to normalize your experience as you develop skills for coping, managing emotions, and fostering self-compassion. In addition to enhancing your self-esteem, therapy for teens gives you a chance to learn how to express your needs and establish meaningful boundaries. 

The Therapeutic Process

The first therapy session is devoted to learning about you and what your goals are. Our therapists place you at the center of the therapeutic process, so we will follow your lead when it comes to the pace of therapy and finding solutions for your teen-specific challenges. Keep in mind, we view parents as allies in your healing. Therefore, they are typically involved in some portion of the intake so that our clinicians can discuss the teen counseling process with them, including limits of confidentiality and the importance of client-therapist trust. 

From there, ongoing sessions will be spent one-on-one, used to build your coping, self-care, and interpersonal skills. Our teen therapists use a combination of behavioral therapies that will help you to identify your emotions and tolerate distress, as well as gentle trauma-informed methods to calm your nervous system. 

With the support you receive at Insights Counseling Center, you can develop meaningful skills that you can bring with you into young adulthood and throughout the rest of your life. By learning the value of mindfulness, behavior change, regulation, and radical self-acceptance, you can overcome current hurdles and face the future confidently. Armed with these skills, you can foster a sense of calm and connection that make life hopeful, exciting, and worthwhile.

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