Navigating Adolescence
Insights & Practical Tips from a Teen Therapist
What Causes Teen Depression? 7 Common Risk Factors
When your teen seems withdrawn, unmotivated, or stuck in a low mood, it’s natural to wonder: What happened? You might try to trace it back to a specific moment or trigger, but teen depression rarely has just one cause.
Tips for Helping when your Teen faces Peer Pressure
Teenagers often have a rebellious reputation. As they near adulthood, they may challenge authority and other norms. At the same time, however, they can be notorious conformists.
How Teen Brains Are Different: What Every Parent Should Know
If your teen seems like a walking contradiction: mature one minute, overwhelmed the next, you’re not alone.
How to Identify and Help With Teen Academic Pressure
If it feels like academic stress has become a full-time job for your teen, you’re not imagining it. Between the rising pressure to take AP classes, maintain perfect GPAs, get into competitive colleges, and “do it all,” many teens feel like there’s no room to breathe.
Are Screens Making Teens Depressed?
If you're a parent of a teen, you've probably asked yourself at some point: Is all this screen time making my kid depressed? With 95% of teens using at least one social media platform, and nearly half reporting they’re online “almost constantly”, it’s no surprise this question is front and center for so many families. But like most things in parenting, the answer isn’t black and white.
Tips For Helping Anxious Teens Who Are Applying For College
College application season has a way of sneaking up on families. Just as your teen is beginning to enjoy a sense of independence, they’re suddenly faced with one of the biggest decisions of their life, while juggling AP classes, extracurriculars, social pressure, and hormonal changes.
Teens and the Pressure of Academic Achievement
For many teens, school isn’t just about learning, it’s about proving yourself. Between grades, college expectations, extracurriculars, and the constant comparisons on social media, it’s easy to feel like you're never doing enough.
Coping with the Pressure to get into a Good College
Contrary to what movies and TV shows might suggest, high school isn’t all school dances and football games. Especially by junior year, a major source of stress for many teens is the pressure to get into a “good college.”
Is CBT an Effective Treatment for Depression?
Depression is one of the most common mental health conditions teens face today. It’s not just occasional sadness; it’s a weight that can make it hard to get out of bed, concentrate in class, connect with friends, or feel hopeful about the future.
Does My Child Have Social Anxiety? 3 Ways You Can Help
As a parent, you're hardwired to protect and guide your child through every stage of their development, from sleepless nights and scraped knees to school projects and emotional meltdowns.
5 Things To Do When Your Teen's Anxiety Turns into School Refusal
If you’ve heard these words on repeat from your teen, or seen the tears, stomachaches, or last-minute meltdowns, you’re not alone. Some school resistance is typical during the teen years. But when those “off days” become persistent refusal, it can feel like things are spiraling
Navigating College Applications: A Guide for Anxious Teens
For many teens (and their parents), the college application process feels like an emotional rollercoaster—equal parts excitement, uncertainty, and pressure. As a former high school counselor, I’ve spent nearly a decade sitting beside students on this ride, helping them navigate the stress of standardized tests, looming deadlines, and life-altering decisions.
7 Essential Sleep Tips Every Teen Needs to Know
Most teens need 8–10 hours of sleep a night, but between late-night homework, after-school activities, TikTok rabbit holes, and buzzing group chats, that goal often feels out of reach.
8 Therapist-Backed Strategies to Help Your Procrastinating Teen
You walk into your teen’s room and see it: the blank stare at a pile of books… the phone scrolling… the late-night promises of “I’ll do it soon.” Sound familiar? If so, you’re not alone. Procrastination in teens is one of the most common sources of academic stress and parent-teen conflict I see in therapy.