I believe that when working with teens the client-therapist relationship is one of the most important factors for successful therapeutic work to occur. Your teen must feel safe, comfortable, and connected with the therapist they are working with. Therefore, my main priority when an adolescent comes to see me is to help them decide whether I am a good fit for them and their particular needs. My next step is to help them to begin exploring those issues that they are struggling with. Because this may be the first time they are talking about these things and I make sure to go at a pace that feels comfortable to them. Together we start looking at what is getting in the way of their overall sense of happiness and well-being.

When working with teens, it’s very important that they feel like therapy is a private place for them to talk about whatever is on their mind. Without a sense of privacy and confidentiality between your teen and their therapist, they are likely to remain closed off or distrustful of the therapist. They want to feel confident in knowing that what they talk about in session is not being disclosed to their parent’s. Therefore, when I work with teens, what they share in therapy stays between the two of us. However, there are a few very important exceptions. You will be the first to know if there is any reason to be concerned about your child’s health, well-being, or safety. To avoid any confusion, I always make sure to discuss my policies around confidentiality with both you and your teen in our first session together. This way you both know what to expect moving forward and I can answer any specific questions that you may have.

I typically like to meet with my teen clients on a weekly basis. I have found that meeting consistently every week helps to build a stronger therapeutic relationship and encourages them to more effectively address the issues they are struggling with. There are times, however, when it is appropriate to meet more or less frequently based on your teen’s current needs or schedule.

Therapy typically does not have a set time length, unless there’s a specific need target area of trauma that we are focusing on. Some problems resolve very quickly while others are more complex and take longer to work through. Usually, I work with teens for at minimum three months, meeting on a weekly basis. I often continue working with them for up to a year or more and then we may transition to once monthly or on a as needed basis.

One of the greatest things that you can do as a parent when your teen is seeing a therapist is to ask both your teen and the therapist what type of involvement would best in her experience in therapy. You may be invited into a session to directly address specific issues that your teen is struggling with and figure out how you can most effectively support them. A joint session with relevant family members and your teen may also be appropriate if there are specific issues that would best be addressed with their direct involvement.

As a therapist who works with adolescents, my aim is to create an environment in which they feel comfortable opening up about what is going on in their lives, without fear of judgment or ridicule. We partner together to help them sort out their feelings, find solutions to their problems, and develop improved coping skills so that they can be more productive at managing the emotional ups and downs of being a teen. Working successfully with adolescents also requires finding a balance between providing them a safe space that is truly theirs, while involving parents and other family members, as necessary, in the service of your teen’s growth and development.