The teen years are filled with change – physical and emotional. During this time, young people start to grow into their own personalities, establish a sense of independence, and develop their own belief systems. It’s an exciting time watching a young person come into their own and start building their future! With all this change and growth, it’s no surprise that teens can experience some big emotions. From managing these challenging feelings to having a safe space to explore who they are and who they want to be, therapy for teens can be a real game changer. On this page, you can learn more about why teens should consider therapy and what they will experience during counseling sessions.
Why Should Teens Consider Therapy?
There are many reasons couples reach out to us for counseling, including
Managing emotions
Teens are often navigating new challenges and emotions, and their emotions may feel overwhelming.Â
Building coping skills
Therapy helps them develop healthy coping strategies. Counseling also helps with changing damaging approaches to coping like self-harm.
Poor self-esteem
As people reach their teen years, they start to compare themselves to others. Often, this comparison leaves them with a diminished sense of self-worth. Therapy helps teens challenge negative thinking and improves self-esteem.
School-related issues
There are many reasons why teens struggle in school. From bullying to academic difficulties, therapy is a good resource to understand the source of these struggles and work through them.
Gender and sexual identity
Exploring the way adolescents want to express their gender and sexual identity can be an important part of the teen years. Some teens struggle to understand or explore these ideas on their own, and therapy provides a safe space to talk it through.
Romantic relationships
Along with understanding their gender and sexual identity, teens may also be ready to enter into their first romantic relationships. Therapy teaches teens about setting good boundaries, understanding how to build strong relationships, and learning how to work through challenges in communication.
Life difficulties
Everyone goes through tough times. For teens, understanding and working through difficult situations like loss of a loved one, parental divorce, moving to new places, or even transitioning to a new stage of life, like going off to college, with a therapist makes the process easier.
What Happens During Teen Therapy Sessions?
During therapy sessions, teens talk with their counselor. The therapist strives to create a safe space where teens feel relaxed and able to open up and explore their challenging feelings, difficult thoughts, and potentially harmful or destructive behaviors they want to change. Each session is collaborative. The therapist and client work together to set goals for therapy sessions and move towards them together. Therapists use research- supported techniques that are proven effective, and they walk alongside clients to help them increase self-esteem, explore identity, and work toward self-acceptance to lead a more fulfilling life.Â
How Do I Get Started?
The Eirene Counseling & Consulting team named the practice after a Greek word for peace. The word eirene refers specifically to a sense of inner peace and harmony in relationship to others. We named our practice after this word because we want to model our therapy practice on helping people achieve eirene. That starts from the moment you reach out to us to schedule an appointment. You can contact us by email at [email protected], over the phone at 804-293-0306, or by completing our online scheduling request form.
Let's Connect!
8100 Three Chopt Rd Rm 203
Richmond, VA 23229
804-293-0306
Fax: 804-237-0358
