Working with teens

I help teens get ready for adulthood by focusing on emotional awareness, social skills, and supporting them as they figure out their place in the world.

As your child enters adolescence, they may be experimenting with separating from you, relying more on their friends for support, and trying new ways of asserting their independence. As these changes occur, your teen may struggle with anxiety, depressed mood, and conflicts with their family and peer groups—even if they didn’t have these symptoms in childhood. For many teens, therapy is central to helping them become more aware of these struggles and gain greater confidence working through them.

Before my first session with your teenager, I’ll meet with you for a parent intake to discuss your main concerns and your teen’s history, so I can gain a holistic view of who they are and where they need support. My early sessions with your teenager will explore their understanding of the concerns you’ve mentioned; we’ll also discuss problems they may have been dealing with on their own. Some teens might have trouble sharing their concerns right away. In that case, our early sessions will focus most on developing trust. For teens who more readily talk about their problems, we’ll start discussing those issues sooner. While the way we get there will be tailored to your teenager, my goal is to introduce cognitive-behavioral interventions, social skills development, acceptance-based strategies, and other targeted interventions to empower them to make change.

I typically meet with your teen for three sessions before meeting with you again for a parent feedback session. Because boundaries and privacy become so important in mid and late adolescence, your teen and I will come up with a plan that’s respectful of their wishes of how much is shared with you. The goal of all parent feedback sessions is to give you a greater understanding of your teen’s problems and the interventions that will help more confidently navigate this stage in their life.

Specialties:       

• Anxiety

• Depression

• OCD

• ADHD

• Family and/or peer relationship problems

• Educational and extracurricular anxiety