Teen Therapy
Teen years can be a push and pull: figuring out who you are, needing more space, and still wanting to feel understood.
School. Friends. Family. Relationships. Identity. Expectations. Belonging.
A lot is changing at once.
Sometimes all of that shows up as anxiety, overthinking, anger, shutting down, pulling away, hurting yourself, or feeling like nobody really gets it.
Therapy can be a place to slow things down and understand what is happening underneath,
not just the behaviour everyone else can see.
Sometimes it’s hard to know when a teen needs more support
Sometimes a teen can be having a really hard time and you would never know from the outside.
It might look like spending more time in their room. Getting irritated over things that never used to be a big deal. Overthinking every conversation. Avoiding school. Losing confidence. Pulling away from friends. Sleeping all the time, or barely sleeping at all.
Other times, the signs are harder to miss.
A teen may be dealing with panic attacks, depression, self-harm, trauma, grief, intense emotions, or something they do not really know how to put into words.
Teens come to therapy for all kinds of reasons, including:
- anxiety, panic, overthinking or feeling overwhelmed
- low mood, feeling numb, self-harm or emotions that feel hard to manage
- trauma, grief or difficult experiences
- school stress, burnout or pressure
- friendships, family conflict, identity or belonging
- ADHD, autism, self-worth or feeling like you don’t quite fit in
A teen does not have to fit neatly into a diagnosis for something to be worth talking about.
If you’re the teen reading this
You do not have to know what to say.
You can come to therapy and say:
“I don’t know.”
“My parents wanted me to come.”
“I don’t want to talk about that yet.”
That is enough to start.
I am not going to push you to tell me everything right away.
We can start with what feels manageable, and you get a say in what we talk about and how quickly we get there.
If you’re self-harming, you can tell me that too. I will take it seriously without judging you or panicking.
A space where you don’t have to explain who you are
Sometimes being queer or trans is a big part of what you want to talk about.
Sometimes it has nothing to do with why you came to therapy.
Either way, you should not have to wonder whether it is safe to be yourself or feel like you need to educate your therapist first.
I’ve done specific research and training focused on supporting 2SLGBTQIA+ young people, including research on self-harm among 2SLGBTQIA+ youth.
You get to tell me what matters, what does not, and what you actually want help with.
If you’re the parent or caregiver
Sometimes you can tell something is wrong before your teen is ready to talk about it.
Maybe they seem more withdrawn, irritable, anxious, or just not quite like themselves. Maybe school, friendships, sleep, confidence, or family relationships have started to feel harder.
And if you find out your teen is self-harming, it can be scary.
You may want to fix it right away. Your teen may be worried that everyone is going to panic, take away their privacy, or start treating them differently.
My role is to take safety seriously while also understanding what is happening underneath.
Therapy gives your teen a space that is theirs, while still making room for you to understand how you can support them.
We will talk clearly about confidentiality, what stays private, what may need to be shared, and when it makes sense for you to be involved.
How I work with teens
My main approach is Emotion-Focused Individual Therapy, or EFIT.
In plain language, that means we do not only focus on the behaviour everyone can see. We get curious about what is happening underneath it and what the teen may be trying to cope with, protect themselves from, or communicate.
Notice the pattern
Maybe it is shutting down, getting angry, overthinking everything, pulling away, or self-harming.
We start by noticing what tends to happen and when.
Understand what is underneath
Anger might also carry hurt.
Shutting down might protect against feeling exposed.
Overthinking might be trying to stop something from going wrong.
Find another way through
Once we understand the pattern, we can work on what the teen actually needs and build more choice in how they respond when things get hard.
The goal is to help a teen understand themselves better, feel safer with their emotions and relationships, and have more choice in what happens next.