Adolescence is a challenging time of life by any measure. Even without external things such as peer pressure, bullying at school or on the Internet, and the prevalence of drugs and alcohol, the raging hormones and emotional ups and downs of adolescence can seem overwhelming. We understand the challenges that adolescents face, and we are here to provide professional and safe help during this often tumultuous time of life.
We focus on patience and safety when helping adolescents. We know that people in this stage of life are frequently on edge and barely able to control their raging emotions. As such, we approach our adolescent clients with patience, empathy, and compassion.
We work to include the family
Of course, every adolescent is part of a larger family unit, and we find the family to be very important in achieving a successful outcome to treatment. As such, we try to include family members in the treatment course to the greatest extent possible.
It makes treatment easier when the parents and even siblings are aware of what is going on and are committed to achieving the goals of the treatment. So we keep open our lines of communication and try to include the entire family as much as we can.
At the same time, we understand that our adolescent patients need to trust us, and sometimes that means we maintain the relationship by keeping in confidence the things we have learned in our individual therapy sessions. We understand that sometimes an adolescent simply doesn’t want his or her parents to know specific things, and we respect their wishes in this regard.
We teach problem-solving skills
One of the biggest challenges facing adolescents is learning to cope with adversity and solve problems in the right way. We work hard to equip our adolescent clients with the tools they need to cope with an ever-changing environment and all the challenges that come with it.
From teaching coping skills, to providing them with tools for handling peer pressure, bullying, the temptation to engage in substance abuse, and other matters, we work hard to ensure that we equip our patients for success.