Teen Counseling

We were all teenagers once. Through no fault of our own, our brains weren’t fully developed, and we did a lot of experimentation to explore our own identities and our relationships with our peers. The key word here is “experimentation.” There’s difference between doing an experiment and blowing up the lab.

As parents, our job is to create a safe and structured laboratory where our teens can do their experiments. We want them to learn about themselves and their relationships with their peers. This is a necessary path on the way to responsible adulthood. And when they’re done for the day, we want them to hang up the lab coat and come on home.

Individual therapy can be a very viable support for teenagers. They have a genuine interest in seeking the truth about life. They want to cut through the nonsense and discover the world. However, they are totally incapable of receiving this wisdom from their parents. It’s part of separating and becoming your own person. They are great at engaging in dialogue and healthy debate with adults- other than their parents.

Parents can help teenagers by giving them space that’s bounded by structure and limits. Parents can help themselves by incentivizing good behavior. Too many parents believe their children have a right to phones and video games without receiving any desirable behavior as part of this exchange. Parents often leave tools on the table that they could be using to maintain their own sanity during the teen years.