Therapy for Teens
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Dear Teen,
You experience every situation with deep emotional intensity, and you feel like emotions run your life. Like a leaf in the wind, the slightest breeze seems to send you into a spiral. When life feels really painful and unbearable, you don't know what else to do except harm yourself or wish the pain would end. If this hits home for you, you’re in the right place.
I support teens who struggle with self-harm, suicidal ideation, and emotion regulation challenges. Using DBT, I will help you (and your family!) learn effective ways to manage emotions, recognize behavioral patterns, and develop meaningful life goals. DBT is not a suicide prevention treatment, it’s a treatment to help you create and nurture a life you feel is worth living.
The teenage years are a chaotic time full of growing pains, unpredictability, and confusion, for both you and your family. If you are looking for a therapist that can provide you intensive support without having to make you hit the pause button on your daily life, I am here to help.
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Dear Parent,
Your teen experiences every situation with deep emotional intensity. Like a leaf in the wind, the slightest breeze seems to send your teen - and your family - into a spiral. You tiptoe on eggshells around them because you feel helpless on how to support them, and you are terrified that they might make a split-second decision or take things too far. You don't want to put them through the hospital system, but you want to make sure they get the care they need. If this sounds like you, you're in the right place.
I support teens who struggle with self-harm, suicidal ideation, and emotion regulation challenges. Using DBT, I will help your teen and your family learn effective ways to manage emotions, recognize behavioral patterns, and develop meaningful life goals. DBT is not a suicide prevention treatment, it's a treatment to help your teen create a life worth living.
The teenage years are a chaotic time full of growing pains, unpredictability, and confusion, for both you and your teen. If you are looking for a therapist that can provide high acuity care while still allowing your teen the time and freedom to attend school/work, see friends, and live their life, I am here for you.
Note: This page is written speaking directly to my teens. Parent/guardians, you can read on with that in mind!
Common Mental Health Challenges Teens Face
Here are some common challenges you might be experiencing that are bringing you (or causing your parent to bring you) to therapy:
Feeling depressed or having a sad/low mood - Maybe you can’t get yourself to leave your room, or you are spending way too much time in bed
Struggling to regulate your emotions - you’re really happy one second, and really down the next
Having thoughts of suicide, wanting to die, or wishing you weren’t here anymore
Harming yourself, physically or mentally - this can look like self-harm, beating yourself up mentally for something you feel bad about, or using alcohol, drugs, shopping, fire-starting, stealing, reckless driving, or other impulsive behaviors to try and cope with your stress
Having low confidence and self-esteem
Struggling with your body image and not liking the way you look
Experiencing traumatic event(s)
Feeling anxious and worried about almost everything and anything - family, friendships, relationships, dating, money, school, work…the future, the past, the present… (we call that generalized anxiety)
Feeling anxious and worried about very specific things (i.e. social situations, phobias)
Struggling with frequent panic attacks
Feeling immense pressure to be “perfect” - “I have to be perfect at this, otherwise what’s the point of even trying?”
School-related stressors like test anxiety, homework stress, learning differences, ADHD, bullying, or feeling overwhelmed by everything that is being asked of you
School avoidance (you just straight up don’t go to school anymore)
Being stressed, worried, and hopeless about the future - Am I going to college? Am I going to work? What should my career even be? I have no idea, it all seems so overwhelming!
College transition stress - college applications, tolerating uncertainty of the admissions process, anxiety around moving to college, anxiety about starting college, or struggling to adjust to college life
Relationship challenges (with your friends, family, or dating)
My Approach to Teen Mental Health
I first started working with teens when I was providing group therapy at a residential and partial hospitalization eating disorder hospital. At that job, I got to support teens in an individual and group setting, and I totally fell in love with the work! I went on to continue this work during my internship, where I worked with teens at a partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient mood disorder program. I provided individual therapy, group therapy, and family support sessions.
What I don’t usually get to share on a resume though, is all the out of pocket things I’ve done to engage with my teens! Of course over the years, I have built up my collection of cheesy therapist games (or games that I try to shove a therapy lesson into!). I also like to incorporate creativity and self-expression in therapy sessions using art, journaling, music, or whatever else you are into. I will totally curse in session with you (only if you do it first!), have a meal with you, take a walk with you, and share memes with you! Also, my instagram algorithm (because I refuse to download TikTok or it will take over my life) is full of game and activity ideas so I can keep being creative with my session tools.
Because here is my biggest takeaway about working with teens: It doesn’t matter how great the therapy I provide you is, if you aren’t interested enough to pay attention. I’m going to be real, our sessions will be hard work. Sometimes we will be playful, we’ll have laughs and maybe even inside jokes! Other times, we will talk about hard, painful, or uncomfortable things, and not everything we do will be exciting and fun (spoiler alert: I assign homework. I know! I’m sorry. We’ll talk about it!). At the end of the day, you are coming to therapy for a reason. We will work together as a team at every step, so that we can make the changes you want to see in your life.
Ready to Get Started?
Step 1
Get Connected
Complete an interest form to schedule a 15 minute consultation call! I will reach out within 1-3 days to set up a time for us to talk.
Step 2
Consultation Call
During the call, I will ask you some questions to see if I will be a good fit for you. You will also get the chance to ask any questions you have about me.
Step 3
Schedule an Intake
If we both decide to move forward, we will schedule an Intake Assessment & get you started on paperwork to prepare for our first appointment!
