Teen Therapy Archives | Arizona Relationship Institute

Anyone and everyone can benefit from therapeutic sessions with a therapist, from teens and 20’s to those in Hospice and End Of Life Care. Therapists help us to sort through the thoughts and emotions that come with the different phases of life. Therapy helps us to adapt through the changes and challenges of life, and helps us to understand ourselves as we too change and transform.

Why Teens And Young Adults Need Therapy More Than Adults

We need therapy during the times of change, and children, teens and young adults go through the most life changes than adults — all of which can be intimidating or downright scary. Teens and young adults know that every move they make is under scrutiny by parents, teachers, relatives, friends, and society as a whole. They know that every decision they make is going to affect them for the next 5-10-50- or even 80 years!!! There is a lot of weight on the shoulders of teens and young adults.

Parents DO NOT Do a Good Job Addressing Their Children’s Thoughts, Worries, and Mental Health Needs

Parents want to do a good job at all things regarding their children’s care, but are not perfect, and may fail to do so sometimes. That is just reality. Sometimes doctors, dentists, behavioral specialists, or other professionals need to help provide the best care for a child that is possible. This goes for mental health therapists as well. It is important for teens and young adults to see a therapist for talk therapy if they want it or show signs of needing it.

Teens Are Not Good At Listening To Their Parents

Equally, teens are not good at listening or taking advice from their parents. Further, many teens naturally place blame on their parents for life’s problems; which not only worsens problems for the teen, but hampers communication with the parents. Without the help of a therapist, parents will find themselves in an uphill battle when trying to simply help their teen with their struggles.

Therapy for teens is perfectly healthy, even though some parents may feel a stigma or that their children seeing a counselor or therapist is a sign of something they did wrong. Therapy is nothing to feel shameful-about. Denying the care of a therapist to your children else because of YOUR feelings about can further the problems your teen is experiencing.

Parents are not experts. Children, teens and young adults ask questions that are simply beyond the ability of most parents to answer. Teens and young adults want answers on the questions they have about their changing bodies and brains, and therapists are usually much more equipped to answer these questions than the average parent.

Therapy for Life Changes in Teens and Young Adults

Teens experience a lot of life changes that feel and seem weird to them. Their bodies and brains are changing, and there are new emotions that are developing each day and with each experience the day brings. Questions abound and they need answers that a therapist can help to answer.

Therapy for Teens Going Through Puberty

Puberty is a very intense life change that can start anywhere from age 8 (in the youngest cases) to 21 years (in Delayed Puberty). Teens going through this life change go through changes in body-chemistry and start producing different hormones and chemicals — all of which play a role in thoughts, brain development, emotions, and emotional development.

Why should a teen going through puberty speak to a therapist? Once a teen is comfortable with their therapist and opens-up about their feelings, thoughts and experiences, there are a million reasons that will come pouring out of a teens mind. Issues from bullying to love and lust, from school to friends, the lives of teens are complex and offer numerous opportunities for outside help — help from family, friends, parents, relatives and even therapists.

Therapy For Teens with Delayed Puberty

Children, teens, and young adults can be quite cruel to those who are different than the other majority. Delayed puberty, unfortunately, offers many opportunities for others to be cruel. As other teens start their change of life, they may begin bullying those that don’t develop as fast. Biological females with delayed puberty may get bullied for their looks just as biological males that are “late bloomers.”

Bullying and cruelty about a person’s physical appearance can leave a lasting impression, cause lifelong trauma, or otherwise harm teens. Giving a teen an outlet for negative emotions during the trying times of “not going through puberty when your friends are” can prevent a lot of damage or harm.

Therapy For Teens With Learning Challenges

Teens that are facing learning challenges are at a pivotal point in their teenage years — they are preparing to make decisions that will affect their future educations and livelihoods. At this time, unaddressed learning challenges — even simple ones — can derail the futures of promising young adults.

Many teens get frustrated in their teenage high school years because of all of the challenges that are building-up. The term “dropping out” is synonymous with not finishing high school, but is a good term to use for the way teens feel with unaddressed feelings, thoughts, emotions, or worries . The pressure of it all makes them want to just “Quit.”

In many cases, a teen with learning challenges can be saved and keep themselves “on-track” in their teenage years by giving them an outlet through therapy. Therapy can help a teenager sort-out their emotions and worries, and put everything into a manageable view. Therapists tackle the individual points of stress: schoolwork, concentration problems, social worries, and other stressors; by then addressing each individually, the frustration with the multiple problems can dissolve away.

Therapy For Teens With ADHD

Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) are both contentious diagnoses, as attention disorders seem to fall along a much broader spectrum (similar to autism spectrum disorders). A teen may have an attention deficit that is almost unnoticeable in comparison to severe cases. Because the spectrum is so broad, broad treatments like a single medication type for all cases is unwise — if you care for the long-term wellbeing of teens. Instead, pinpointed therapy sessions aimed to improve concentration and cognitive skills can better-treat the unique needs of patients.

Therapy For Teens With Questions About Sex and Sexuality

If there is one problem that gets tougher for teens as time goes on, it is the problem of questions about sex. Teens and young adults in 2024 have a lot more questions about sex and sexuality than teens just 50 years ago, because our understanding of sex and sexuality as a society and culture has changed. Questions from teens about sex and sexuality are best handled by parents and a therapist in-conjunction; parents who are open to having talks about sex with their teens are encourages to do so while leaning-on the expertise of a therapist.

Parents Who Are Not Comfortable with Talking About Sex With Their Teens

If you — as a parent — are not comfortable with talking about sex to your kids, or don’t feel that you are best suited for the conversations, we encourage you to encourage your teens to speak with a therapist about their questions. A therapist can help them to understand the safety needs around sex as well, educating them about pregnancy, STIs and STDs, and sexual boundaries.

Starting Teen Therapy and Family Counseling with a Free Consultation

Families and parents of teens are encouraged to start a free 15 minute phone consultation to see how therapy can help you, your teens, children and family. This is the best way to start your search for a therapist that matches your needs, as well as your insurance and payment questions.

As children exit their childhood stages and enter into pre-teen and teenage years, many parents fear that their changing minds and bodies — as well as the influence of peers and friends — may cause their children to experiment with drugs and alcohol, or develop behavioral issues. How can parents be proactive and help to prevent these issues from developing in their children?

Substance Abuse in Teens

Arizona teenagers have a lower risk factor for substance abuse than teenagers in other states in the United States, but the threat is still very real and very important to avoid. 7.58% if 12-17 year-olds in the State of Arizona report using drugs in the past month, Further, 12.51% of Arizona Teens admit to using marijuana at least once in the past year. Though lower than the rest of the country, the threat of substances abuse and behavioral issues in teens is still very high and a serious one.

Behavioral Problems in Teens

Teens can develop behavioral problems seemingly out-of-nowhere… it comes down to a simple choice by the teenagers whether to seek positive behaviors or negative ones. This choice happens in the teenager’s mind, and therefor the precipitation of the choice also happens 100% in the teenager’s mind. This choice might be influenced by outside opinions (parents warnings about the dangers of drugs and alcohol [positive], or by peer pressure from friends [negative]).

Reinforcing outside influences can push teens further into one choice or the other, so the more positive communication and influence you give a child/teen on this subject, the more likely they will make a positive choice when pressured into using drugs and alcohol or engaging in negative behavioral patterns.

Examples of Teen Behavioral Issues

- Self Harm
- Defiance
- Oppositional Behavior
- Aggression
- Lying
- Uncontrolled Irritability
- Aggressive Behaviors
- Moodiness
- Conduct Changes
- Argumentative

Is My Teenager’s Behavior Normal?

All of the above examples of behavioral issues are to be expected in minor doses from your teen. Teens are generally more argumentative, aggressive, defiant, and less in-control of their behaviors than children and adults, so this behavior is to be expected in minor forms. When these behaviors exceed the normal range of teenage angst and become dangerously problematic, this is indicative of a more serious problem than just normal teenage behavior.

By the time serious behavioral problems show-up in teens, it may be too late for them to reverse course easily. Instead parents want to watch for the warning signs that their teens behavior is outside the normal range, and rectify the behaviors BEFORE they get out-of-hand.

Red Flags for Teenage Behavioral Issues

Contrary to popular belief, behavioral issues are more often seen in teens and children with HIGHER intelligence, rather than in teens within an average range of intelligence. The negative and defiant behaviors often develop out of the teenager’s opinions on what they see right in front of them: in society, in circles of friends, in the behaviors of parents and teachers, and the general way the world works.

Being a teenager is all about realizing who you are and how you fit into the world around you. When things don’t fit exactly, the teenager’s mind is left to question: WHY? The teenage mind tells the individual that something needs to change in order for them to fit in. The teenager will then try and change 1 of 2 things to fit better — either the world, or themselves. This is where the behavioral issues usually stem from.

“Why should I go to school?” the teenage mind will ponder. “The way school is set up does not offer me any benefit that I can see right now, so it is not important to me.” This is where you get the defiant, combative, and aggressive behaviors in teens.

When faced with the realization that to get over this hardship they are feeling they must either change themselves or change the world, some teens get motivated while others lose their motivation. Those that lose interest and motivation are more at-risk to “drop out” instead of dealing with an issue. Not dealing with these smaller issues leads to compounded issues and eventually behavioral problems and issues.

Therapy for Disillusioned Teens

“Disillusion” is the feeling that drives behavioral problems in teens. A feeling of disappointment in something that leads them to not care about that thing anymore, and lack and motivation attached to that thing.

For example, there is a time in almost every child’s life when they go from loving school to hating it. It may happen early in life or later in life, but when the change does happen, it is because the individual has become disillusioned with the idea of school. Maybe the teen feels that school is not really as necessary as parents and teachers have proclaimed it to be; but, the teen no longer has the interest in school and performance will start dropping if they are not engaged. Rectifying this situation requires therapy, because we need to find out what exactly it was that disillusioned the teen, in order to re-instill hope and motivation once again.

Helping Teens to Grow at Their Own Pace

The problem with most school and education systems, is that they all follow a single schedule. At a certain age you begin learning ABCs, another age you learn common courtesy (please and thank you’s), and at the next age all the children move onto the next subject of learning. The problem is that not all children learn and grow at the same rate.

One 13 year old may be fully ready to move onto more complicated and advanced education subjects, while another of the same age might be behind and still need a few more months of practice to be on-par with other children. Therapists act as an outside teacher to help “coach” these teens on the problems they are facing and help to bring them to where they need to be to move-on to the next learning challenge.

Therapy and Counseling for Young Adults

Along those same lines, some teens can become young adults in their 20s before successfully tackling all of their teenage problems. Even adults need therapy and counseling for issues and ideas that were never properly dealt with as a teenager. Remedial counseling for teenage problems as an adult or young adult is quite common, nothing to be ashamed of, and therapists can work closely with you work through developmental-age issues that still persist.

Does Your Teen or Adolescent Need Therapy?

The best way to find if your child could benefit from therapy and counseling is to start with a conversation. A 15 Minute Consultation between your child and a therapist can find out what your child is thinking and worrying about. Sometimes these worries and frustrations can be fixed simply by talking about them and “getting the issue off your chest.” Often a teenager finds an outlet for their feelings and emotions through therapy, and the talk therapy alone is enough to avoid or rectify any behavioral issues in teens and young adults.

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Category: Teen Therapy

Therapy for Teens and Adolescents: Common Teen Problems