Counseling with Adolescents

I have worked with adolescents who are struggling with a large variety of issues. Some of these issues include:

• Parenting and Behavior Problems
• Adolescent Identity Issues
• Anger Control and Management
• Childhood Sexual and Physical Abuse
• Sexual and Gender Orientation Issues
• Youth in Foster Care
• Youth involved in the Juvenile Justice System
• Depression & Anxiety
• School Phobia
• Low Self-Esteem
• Children from Divorced Families

I work with adolescents in both individual and family therapy. Sometimes it is best to work on an individual basis to help nurture a young person's budding sense of autonomy and individuality. This is often the best way to address symptoms such as irritability, depression, and low self-esteem so they can consolidate a more stable personal identity and therefore face their futures more confidently.

When families are experiencing an adolescent with behavioral problems, I often choose to use a combination of individual and family therapy. Parents often come to therapy with a sense of confusion, shame or failure at having a conflictual relationship with their young person. I work to help normalize the difficulty most families have helping their children make the transition from adolescence to adulthood and to help parents identify the many strengths they bring to the process. Therapy can then also focus on identifying useful parenting strategies to deal with behavioral problems while simultaneously working to increase the quality of the parent-child relationship. Working with adolescents and their families is some of the most satisfying work that I have done as a psychotherapist.