Youth Counseling
(Tween/Teen Therapy)
Change abounds.
The years from 10 – 20 are full of changes and transitions.
There is often change in school – entering middle school, then high school, and eventually deciding one’s path after high school graduation.
There are the many physical and hormonal changes that come with puberty.
There are possibly multiple changes in friendships and interests. And many more possible changes.
Is there a guidebook for growing from age 10 to age 20?
Young people do not get a textbook on how to go through it. There are different expectations from different groups of people – be it parents, siblings, friends, teachers, etc. It sometimes feels that different people in one’s life have different agendas for the young person.
Finding their path most often is through trials and errors.
Social Media can complicate these uncertain times with its own expectations, rewards and judgments broadcast far and wide, 24 hours/7 days a week.
This time can indeed be an exciting time for youth. But, it could also be an intense time for many and bring with it worries, doubts, judgments, sadness, irritation, fears – to only name a few of the difficult emotions. These emotions could start asserting a great deal of influence, if not control, on how one views him/her self and on their relationships with family and/or friends.
Youth is separate from the problem.
My work with adolescents is a collaborative one based mainly on narrative therapy. One of its main principles is that the youth is separate from the problem. This principle allows me to view a youth as facing a problem rather than being the problem.
It also actively invites youth to pay attention to their values, hopes and preferences, rather than on pathology. This is supported by the view that that youth have the skills, knowledge, ability, beliefs and insights necessary to change their relationships to the problems.
This approach in working with youth reduces instances of resistance to receiving therapy and also in invites youth to work together with their support system rather than working against or apart from them. An additional benefit is that everyone involved in the treatment is less fatigued by the weight of the difficulties we encounter by using this model.
To find a better direction, please call me today at (301) 383-5620. I will work with your youth to help them find their way.