Teen and adolescent counseling Orlando and the need for our teens to receive therapy is growing by the day. When working with teens, it’s imperative that they feel connected to and supported by the therapist. Teen and adolescent therapy Orlando in today’s demanding world is no easy task. Teen and adolescent therapy is extremely beneficial. If an adolescent feels that all I am doing is gathering information and then reporting it directly back to their parents or caregiver, then the trust is broken and counseling becomes ineffective. However, the tricky yet important piece of counseling for teens and adolescents, is getting the teen to the place where they are able to communicate their fears, anger, needs, depression and concerns in a productive way. This is done by working with the teen in a collaborative and team effort.
At first a highly resistant adolescent will not want to include their parents in sessions. This is usually because the teen is fearful of what a parent might say or do. This also may be because they are unable or have never had the role modeling to effectively express their anger, fears, needs and concerns. It is important for the therapist to always work towards improving the whole system (family) and allow all members to learn new effective ways of communication, listening, dealing with stress and creating new rules and guidelines that will support and encourage the adolescent to feel safe.
Parents also need to feel included and educated on how to assist their adolescent, and learn the important skills to no longer enable their teen. Working with adolescents is highly effective when the therapist and adolescent are working as a team and the adolescent knows that when they come to see me they have a safe place to express themselves and trust that I have nothing but their best interest at hand. Once this therapeutic bond has been established it’s amazing to see the growth and changes teens can make.
Doing your own work as an adult is helpful so that you can see if control, issues of codependency and helicopter parenting are present.