Adolescents

Adolescence has always been an exciting, but sometimes challenging, period of life. With the changes that have taken place in our culture, however, adolescents are facing more, and different, pressures than their parents did. In addition to adjusting to the dramatic physical and hormonal changes in their bodies, adolescents must also deal with relationship issues, peer pressures, academic pressures, identity issues and family issues. For those adolescents who live in single parent or blended families, there are often additional issues to be faced.

While some adolescents seem to make it through this period with relatively little difficulty, others experience considerable emotional and psychological pain. Cool and collected on the outside, on the inside adolescents may be churning with anxiety or suffering the symptoms of depression. In an attempt to deal with uncomfortable thoughts and feelings, adolescents may act out in various ways.

Counseling provides a safe environment for an adolescent to discuss and work through whatever issues they may be facing.  Through the relationship with their counselor, adolescents begin to feel comfortable opening up about issues they simply would not talk about with their parents (or possibly any other adult.)  It is quite common for adolescents to tell one of us at the end of a session that they feel a lot better, simply because they have had a chance to get some things off their chest.

Because adolescents are typically living at home with one or both parents, we are careful to keep the parent(s) informed and involved, as appropriate, in the treatment process. Although not always the case, this may involve scheduling one or more family sessions to discuss issues that may be related to the family system.