Navigating Adolescence
Insights & Practical Tips from a Teen Therapist
How Teens Can Express Feelings Without Pushing Their Family Away
Teens often feel stuck between needing space and wanting to be understood. That tension can turn into slammed doors, one-word answers, or explosive arguments. As a parent, it’s easy to wonder: Why won’t they just talk to me?
How to Help Your Teen Build a Healthy Relationship With Anger
Anger is one of the most misunderstood emotions in teens. It can come out as slammed doors, snappy comebacks, eye rolls, or total shutdowns.
Five Simple Tools to Help Teens Regulate Their Emotions
Emotional regulation isn’t about never getting upset, it’s about learning how to ride the wave without getting swept away. For teens, that skill takes practice, and often, they need help finding strategies that actually work in the moment.
What Does Anxiety Feel Like for Teens?
Anxiety is more than just being worried about a test or overthinking a text. For teens, it can show up in quiet, sneaky ways and often gets misread as moodiness, withdrawal, or even defiance.
Should Parents Attend Teen Therapy Sessions?
As a parent, you want to do everything in your power to support your teen. But when therapy enters the picture, a common question arises: Should I be involved in my teen’s sessions or give them space to work things out on their own?
When and How to Let Your Teen Start Using Social Media Safely
Navigating social media with teens often feels like walking a tightrope. Parents get hit on one side by alarming news about the harms of tech use, and on the other by teens insisting they need it to stay connected.
Digital Self‑Harm in Teens: What It Is & How Parents Can Help
Digital self-harm is a hidden yet increasingly common behavior among teens, more subtle but equally concerning than physical self-injury.
How Teens with ADHD Can Build and Maintain Friendships
Teenagers with ADHD often have big hearts, bright minds, and boundless energy, but navigating the social world doesn’t always come easily.
5 Communication Tools for When You and Your Teen Are Arguing
If you’re the parent of a teen, you’ve probably had moments where a simple disagreement spirals into slammed doors, shut-down silence, or a shouting match you didn’t see coming. You’re not alone, and you’re not failing.
How to Help Your Teen Build and Maintain Healthy Friendships
Friendships are everything in the teen years. They can be a source of joy, identity, and comfort, and sometimes, a source of stress, confusion, or even heartbreak.
Teen Moodiness or Anxiety? How to Tell the Difference
As a teen therapist specializing in ages 12 to 19, I often hear from parents who are caught between shrugging off their teen’s moodiness and worrying that something deeper is going on.
Group Therapy for Teens: Why It Really Works
When parents picture therapy, they often imagine their teen one-on-one with a counselor in a private room. That model absolutely has its place, but there’s another incredibly powerful option that’s often overlooked: group therapy for teenagers.
How to Help Your Teen with the Middle to High School Transition
Moving from middle school to high school is a major milestone for teens and parents alike. It’s not just a change of buildings or schedules, it’s a whole new chapter full of social pressures, academic challenges, and emotional growth.
Why Your Teen Daughter Struggles with Independence (and What Helps)
As parents, you often expect your kids to grow up through clearly marked developmental milestones. But parenting teenage daughters and supporting their growing independence will quickly teach you that this process doesn’t happen all at once
Teen Motivation in School: 3 Tips That Actually Work
Between distractions, big assignments, and shifting moods, it’s normal for teenagers to feel overwhelmed or unmotivated at times. Busy schedules and the pressure to keep up can leave them (and you!) feeling stressed-out and frustrated.
Staying Close to Your Teen When They Pull Away
Let’s be honest: staying emotionally connected to your teenager can feel tough. One minute you’re chatting about school, and the next they’re in their room with the door closed, headphones on, leaving you wondering what just happened.
Teen Boy Depression: Signs, Causes, and How Parents Can Help
Depression in teenage boys is often harder to spot than you might think. While many people associate depression with visible sadness or withdrawal, teen boys are more likely to express their distress through irritability, anger, or risky behavior.
Friendship Anxiety in Teens: What It Is and How to Help
It’s easy to expect friendships to be the safe haven in a teen’s life. But for many adolescents, relationships with peers can also become a major source of anxiety.
How Does a Fear of Failure Play Into Social Anxiety?
It’s easy to scroll past a meme or TikTok about “social awkwardness” and think, Maybe this is just who I am.
How to Help Teens Overcome Social Anxiety
Even the most outgoing teen can feel nervous walking into a new classroom, speaking up in front of peers, or introducing themselves to someone new.