Children Teens and Families

CHILDREN, TEENS + FAMILIES

The strongest foundation is at home.

Children + Teens

Adolescent years are a time of tremendous challenge and change. The physical, emotional, social, intellectual and moral changes happen rapidly, which can lead to confusion, anxiety, shame, low-self-esteem and depression. We work with teens, and their parents, to help them process these heavy emotions, manage their fears, and learn the skills needed to cope and thrive. Relationships with peers are everything at this age, so it is central in our therapeutic relationship with teens. We help teens navigate these relationships, peer pressure, cliques, online bullying and alcohol and drug use.

Oftentimes teens, or their parents, are seeking help for a specific problem that might be causing hardship and pain. Other times, they are just going through a rough time and could use a little more emotional support. We keep the matters that teens bring to our attention confidential when we can, but also seek permission to bring parents in when it is helpful or necessary.

Teens face tremendous pressure to perform and succeed. School is stressful, then there are the SATs and ACTs, college applications, cliques, and parental expectations on top of it. Sometimes this stress builds up and prevents teens from following through with homework, taking or passing an exam, or performing at a concert or on the team. We work with teens to help them see this fear for what it really is, then overcome it, so they can stop it from sabotaging their hopes and dreams in life.

The focus on our work with teens involves helping them understand how their thoughts, actions and feelings are interconnected and can work to reinforce bad feelings and behaviors. Using metaphors that they can relate to, we help them realize the things that are within their control that can be changed to help them feel better.

The following is a list of teen issues we can help with:

Anxiety
Anger
Depression
ADHD
Trauma and abuse
Life event/change
Relationship problems
Grief
School refusal (or other issues such as grades)
OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder)
Gender identify, Sexuality and Gender Nonconforming
Low self-esteem due to a learning disability

We help teens develop:

Coping skills in dealing with challenging feelings and situations
Problem-solving skills
Ability to understand and regulate feelings and behavior
Ways to manage anger
Goal-setting skills
Organizational skills
Skills in social problem-solving, making friends and negotiating with peers
Relational empathy
Relaxation techniques including counting and taking deep breaths, and progressive muscle relaxation exercises
Skills to conquer worry and fears that interfere with goal attainment

Families

Parenting

All families need a strong support system to be healthy and thrive. We can't do it alone, yet many parents set high expectations for themselves to manage it all, even living far away from their extended families and their support network. The situation can be further challenged by sleep deprivation, full-time demanding careers, and complications like the special needs of a child. At a Good Place, we have therapists who have expertise in these areas and have been there themselves.

Family Therapy

Family relationships are an important factor in maintaining psychological health and involving families in treatment can be very powerful. Therapy helps to strengthen bonds and reduce conflict, so that families can work collaboratively towards solving problems. At A Good Place Therapy, we take a "systems-approach," which focuses on understanding and treating an individual's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors within the context of their families, and examines these behaviors from various angles and viewpoints. We focus on helping members understand each other better. From the outset, we identify clear goals and offer tools to improve communication.