Child and Adolescent Therapy

I provide individualized treatment and tailored to the needs of the adolescents and their families. Therapy offers adolescents the opportunity to express their concerns; understand their emotions; and develop their own ways to manage all these changes. In my work with adolescents I aim to help them to find balance between their emerging independence and navigating their roles within their family all while coping with new responsibilities in other spaces they are beginning to occupy. 

We are seeing that this generation of adolescents are reporting and experiencing some of the highest levels of mental health distress, loneliness, depression, and anxiety. They are also actively seeking out mental health support and voicing this need. Compounded with declining mental health is the intense academic pressure and expectations some adolescents face. Others are dealing bullying or facing fall out with friend groups or romantic relationships. Many are struggling with finding meaningful friendships, trying to fit in, and  experimenting with drugs and alcohol. Adolescents are navigating how they see themselves in the world, where they fit in with friends, family, and how they view themselves. This time is also especially critical as teenagers feel more comfortable within their gender and sexual identifies and may want to share these parts of their identity more openly.  

No matter what is bringing a preteen or teen to therapy.  I work with adolescents to explore their difficulties, emotions, stresses through helping to build their own sense of independence and resilience. This can start by  identifying coping strategies activate in moments of distress and and in the long term we seek to lay the groundwork for a life that is both meaningful and fulfilling. 

I offer a combination of a modalities like supportive talk therapy, mindfulness to ease anxiety, relational psychotherapy, DBT, and IFS. I find showing up as genuine, authentic, and respectful person is key to being an adolescent therapist. I am always curious, I use humor and I let my adolescent clients know that they are the experts in their life. Working with the knowledge of the many complex roles adults play in an adolescent's life, I attempt to serve as a consistent guide and nurture their need for independence as well as the fear, I find myself as a therapist/sounding board creating a space through therapy that can provide a respite for many of my clients.