Individual Teens and Young Adults Counseling

Teens today live with many distractions.

Life for your teenager is full of distractions.

Brawl Stars, Call of Duty, Apex Legends, YouTube, and TikTok – are a few platforms that take up so much of your emerging adult’s time. These distractions interfere with school and work and halt forward progress.

Stress and anxiety from needing to perform and look to the future (e.g., college) make them feel depressed and worried, making everything much harder. Then, there are relationship issues.

“Who’s dating whom, should I date, why don’t they like me, or why am I not dating?”

All these distractions make it difficult for your teen to move forward productively while having meaningful relationships with friends and family.

Motivating your teen is challenging.

Many teens don’t know how to motivate themselves without help. Unfortunately, as the parent, you don’t know how to motivate them – unless yelling and screaming count as motivational techniques.

You do know what doesn’t work. Restricting access to screens and pushing them to get a job or work harder in class only creates other issues and doesn’t really motivate them.

What you have tried so far seems to be hurting your relationship with your teen more than helping. The communication gap only increases. At this point, you don’t know how much to push and how much to step away from.

An internal battle of support vs. independence is going on with your teen. They rely on video games and other distractions to avoid responsibility. They aren’t facing their true problems. At the same time, your teen wants independence but struggles with the challenges associated with autonomy.

Life should look different for your teen.

The teenage years should be exciting for you both as they gain independence, establish relationships, and look to the future.

You want your teen to get out and experience living – be more independent and confident. They can’t live with you forever. There is so much untapped potential you know exists. You want to help them tap into that potential and move forward into their best life.

Unfortunately, this is not what you see with your teen, and how they behave makes you worry about their emotional stability and well-being.

But how do you communicate your feelings to your teen without sounding disappointed or judgmental?

Counseling can help your teen and you.

Having an open and constructive conversation with your teen is challenging for parents. As a counselor, I understand this challenge.

The first step is establishing trust with your teen by actively listening to them without judgment. Once I gain their confidence, teenagers love to explain their feelings and challenges honestly.

Through counseling, your teen and I can work through what has them stuck and find ways to get unstuck. As a parent, you can also learn ways to establish a different communication approach that helps your teen overcome their anxiety and fears.

Let’s help your teen break out of distracting patterns and worries that keep them from enjoying more independence, fulfillment, and reward.

Contact me today to help your teen get past feeling worried, anxious, depressed, and stuck.