Teen Therapy
Does your teenager feel like no one understands them?
Have you noticed a concerning change in your teen’s behavior? Are they struggling with anxiety, depression, ADHD, or low self-esteem? No matter how hard you try to help your teen, does it feel like you can’t get through to them?
As much as you want to help them, you may not know where to start.
Maybe your teenager feels like they don’t belong anywhere—they have a tough time connecting with others and making friends. Perhaps they’re more withdrawn than usual, neglecting their hobbies and passions and spending all their time in their room. Maybe part of you wonders if this is a phase, but another part feels like it’s a more serious mental health issue. For the first time, you may be considering a teen therapist.
Sometimes you might feel powerless to help your teen.
As a parent, you may find yourself in something of a catch-22—you want to help your teenager, but doing so is tricky since they’re not a child anymore. After all, they want their independence. When you try to talk to them, they might be irritable and unwilling to tell you what’s going on. As a result, you may wonder: How do I connect with my kid without being a helicopter parent? Should I intervene or not intervene?
Here at Mental Wellness Montclair, we know that parenting a teenager is hard. That’s why we’re here. Our mission is to help your teen boost their confidence, improve their social life, and learn to love themselves on a deeper level.
Teens in the social media age face more pressure than ever before.
Let’s be honest: being a teenager in today’s world is no cakewalk. On top of peer pressure, hormonal changes, and all the other growing pains of adolescence, teens nowadays have to wrestle with the challenges of social media.
Not only is social media full of negative content, but it skews reality for many teens. All over their timelines, teens see their friends having fun, partying, and getting into happy relationships. The constant exposure to everyone else’s highlight reels creates a “compare-and-despair” culture—teens feel like everyone else is happy and popular except for them.
In this way, social media acts as a breeding ground for insecurity. It teaches teens that their worth is found in likes, clicks, and followers.
As the parent, it’s hard to be objective because of how much you love your teen.
The fact that you’re so emotionally invested in your teen’s life is great. But the closer you are to someone, the harder it is to be objective about their situation. Thus, it is often helpful to get professional support and perspective . Sometimes teenage mental health issues are just too complicated for one person to solve.
In therapy, your teen gets a chance to talk to someone who is deeply caring and empathetic, yet still unbiased and able to see things from a more clear perspective.
Common Questions About Teen Therapy
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When will things get easier for my teen?
In therapy, things can get better bit by bit or in big strides. It’s a process of ebbs and flows, and the most worthwhile progress of all often happens slowly. That’s why we encourage your teen to be patient with themselves. The healing process will take place at a pace that’s right for them.
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What if my teen doesn’t connect with their therapist?
The foundation for all change is the relationship between your teen and their counselor. So if your teen doesn’t connect with their therapist, they are more than welcome to work with a different one. The good news is that our therapists are highly experienced in working with teens. We know how to connect with them on a deeper level and relate to their struggles. We’re confident that we can do the same for your teen.
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What if my teen doesn’t want to go to counseling?
We encourage your teen to give therapy a try—if they don’t like it, there is no pressure to come back. Thankfully, most of the teens we see quickly come to enjoy their time here. When they realize this is a safe space to be themselves and share their worries without any fear of judgment, they feel empowered and start to see the change they hoped for.
Therapy Can Empower Teens To Feel Confident In Who They Are
Your teen deserves a safe space where they can freely speak their mind and feel seen, heard, and valued for who they are. That’s what therapy provides. At Mental Wellness Montclair, we want to help your teen feel more confident in their unique identity and empowered to help them pursue their hopes and dreams.
Our therapists have had lots of experience working with teens, so we know how to get on their level and make sessions engaging for them. We provide therapy for depression, anxiety, ADHD, and many other teenage mental health issues.
What to expect in teen counseling sessions
In the beginning, we will meet with your teenager one-on-one to get their perspective and figure out what to work on. Toward the end of the intake session, we may bring you in to discuss confidentiality and parental involvement.
Although we want you to play an active role in your teen’s therapy, what your teen talks about stays between them and their therapist. For them to work through their mental health issues, they need a safe space to share their thoughts and feelings privately. This being said, we recognize the importance of involving parents. Our therapists convey this to their clients and typically agree on what and how to update parents.
In sessions with your teen, we’ll help them get to the core of their struggles and figure out what’s working and not working. We’ll explore various self-care strategies that they can use to improve their mood, reduce their stress, and regulate impulsive behaviors and distressing emotions. This way, they’ll have a toolbox of skills that they can draw from at any time.
Our approach to Teen Therapy
Every teen is different, so it’s very important that counseling is tailored to suit each teen’s unique needs and goals. Though we typically look at our clients through a Psychodynamic lense, one of the main approaches that we use with teens is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). This approach can help your teen connect the dots between their thoughts, feelings, and actions. By challenging negative thoughts and beliefs, your teen can experience positive change in every area of their life.
Additionally, we often utilize the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), which helps teens release stress by tapping specific pressure points on the body. We also incorporate a lot of mindfulness skills like meditation, deep breathing, and visualization.
In the end, we know that being a teenager is hard—there are so many demands teens have to juggle and so many expectations to meet. Our sessions provide teens with a space to relax, think out loud about their life, and experience validation and understanding.
Set Your Teen Up For Future Success Through Counseling
Helping your teen work through their mental health challenges now can make them more prepared for the challenges of adulthood.
To learn more about how therapy can help your teen, email us or call 973-210-7310.
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