Psychotherapy with adolescents, in addition to addressing specific symptoms, also helps to give them a sense of direction thereby reducing the level of confusion that this potentially difficult developmental phase can generate.  Finding one’s identity and defining one’s relationship with parents and peers can at times be overwhelming.  Depression and anxiety can interfere with a developmental task that is often by itself fraught with tensions.  Psychotherapy is a place to make sense of what is happening, so that thinking, reflection and evaluation can continue to take place, despite all the challenges that are being faced.

The involvement of parents in the work with an adolescent depends on the age of the adolescent and the severity of the symptoms.  The younger the adolescent, and/or the more severe the symptoms, the more parents will need to be involved.  Some older adolescents can use psychotherapy the way an adult does, i.e., they can use the medium as a space to think and resolve conflicts without involving an intervention with the parents.  Initial interviews with the parents, however, are always needed in order to determine how best to work.

The work with parents consists generally in helping them to better understand the developmental challenges that their teenager is facing.  We discuss strategies to handle conflicts (how to pick your battles) and what can or cannot be expected.  Understanding what happens in the mind of their teenager helps parents determine how to handle problematic behavior and everyday relationships.

Suggested Readings:

Yes, Your Teen is Crazy! Loving Your Kid Without Losing Your Mind
Michael J. Bradley, Washington: Harbor Press, Inc., 1997

The Primal Teen: What the New Discoveries about the Teenage Brain Tell us about our Kids. 
Barbara Strauch, New York: Anchor Books, 2003

Get Out of My Life, but first could you Drive me and Cheryl to the Mall?: A Parent’s Guide to the New Teenager
Anthony E. Wolf, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002.