Adolescent Counseling

Help your kid transition through adolescence better with adolescent counseling.

The adolescent years are essential, formative years in human development. For sure, you’ve seen plenty of coming-of-age stories about adolescents struggling socially, acting up, shutting down, getting aggressive, and getting into trouble with alcohol and drugs. While a little bit of risk taking and rebellious behavior is normal during adolescence as teens learn and develop a sense of identity independent of the family structure. However, if you’re concerned about your child’s behavior or they’ve expressed having feelings of depression, anxiety, or low self-worth, speaking with a counselor of teens and adolescents may be a great benefit to your child. With proper adolescent counseling, these negative feelings and risky behavior can be mitigated. A trusted counselor can provide much needed support and guidance for your child as they tread the path towards adulthood.

The adolescent period is full of huge developmental milestones; physical and mental changes in adolescence are massive and can often be a source of confusion, overwhelm, and negative self-image for many teens. Boys and girls go through puberty, and they start seeing physical body changes. Puberty also means hormones that start affecting their moods and thought processes. Emotional health, self-image, identity, and peer pressure become essential issues to tackle at this stage.

Adolescents need to be appropriately guided and offered support during these rapidly changing years in their lives. Otherwise, they could end up derailed on the wrong path and retreating to alcohol, drugs, and other unhealthy coping mechanism. In many cases, mental health services can be a beneficial tool for you and your child to prevent these types of harmful behaviors.

What can I do as a parent?

How do you deal with adolescent mental health issues as a parent? Modeling and encouraging good social behaviors for your kid is an excellent way to start. But your family dynamic is not the only factor playing a role in your child’s behavior as an adolescent. At this developmental stage, peers play a huge factor in their behavior and psychology. Providing the knowledge, self-assurance, and structure to prevent your child from mixing in with the ‘wrong crowd’ is important.

Try talking to them about what they are going through and how they feel their mental health is doing as well. If they refuse to talk, bring up the subject of seeing an adolescent psychologist and see what their thoughts are about it. When speaking with your child about their mental health, it helps to bring up the topic at a time when your teen is not outwardly stressed, anxious, or distracted and to communicate in a way that is respectful and free of judgement. Respecting the emotions and growing independence of your child also doesn’t mean that you can’t continue to instill rules and boundaries as a parent.

Adolescent Counseling at ThoughtWise

Change is unavoidable during adolescence. Sometimes, these changes can be overwhelming and confusing for some children. Our adolescent therapists at ThoughtWise can help your child understand and cope with the changes they are going through. Mental health guidance and counseling during adolescence is not only beneficial for children who have been diagnosed or are displaying symptoms of mental health conditions, such as anxiety, depression, and mood or personality disorders. Adolescence is a time full of stress and high emotions, and many children and teens will benefit from speaking with a therapist during their transition into adulthood.

Our goal at ThoughtWise is to help your kid and your immediate family develop healthy coping skills needed to get through this stage in your kid’s life. Coping skills that encourage healthy psycho-social development. Your adolescent child needs to feel good about themselves, establish healthy identities, develop respectful relationships, and find their place within your family, social circle, and society at large during this time. Click here to learn more about identity development in adolescents.

At ThoughtWise Adolescent Counseling Center, we are seasoned psychologists who will work with your adolescent, and with you, in understanding you’re unique issues. Adolescent therapy is a collaborative process that involves not just your child but you as their parent. Our process is practical and solution-focused. Each session is tailor-fit and will adjust to your child’s current needs. 

Whatever it is that your kid is going through, whether it’s anger management, body image issues, school problems, bullying, eating disorder, depression, substance abuse, self-harm, disengagement, social isolation, or sexuality issues, our expert counselors are equipped to handle all kinds of adolescent issues.