You used to go everywhere together.
When she was 5 years old, she walked beside you, holding your hand. You took time off from work to spend an afternoon with her.
You’d go to the movies, the zoo, the park, to birthday parties, to the State Fair where she got too tired to walk and you had to carry her until you found the stroller. She still didn’t want to go home.
There was a deeply pleasurable sense of companionship with this little one you tucked in every night after story time. But, not anymore.
What happened?
She’s a stranger now, her eyes glued to a screen for her eyes only.
There are hours behind a closed door, and you wonder, “What’s going on in there?”
Or, maybe there’s been a divorce, and no matter how you’ve tried, you can’t seem to bridge the distance.
Your little boy is becoming a man.
You still see him often, but a gulf has emerged and deepened.
You spend time with him, but it’s not together. The visits are obligatory, both of you still in the ruins of the home that once was.
Where did that marvelous child go, still so recent in memory?
The major metamorphosis of adolescence
For child and parent, it is time spent in rough waters, navigating the breathtaking changes underway.
It is a time when your child wants to pull away, and you find yourself crashing from your pedestal, wondering, “Where did I go wrong?”
These changes can be so overwhelming for many kids that they show signs of anxiety or depression, which they try to deal with in often harmful ways.
If you are a teen, you probably need a therapist.
Teen therapy is a private relationship where a young person can get help putting the pressures and challenges of life in perspective.
It’s a place where he or she can make decisions and come to grips with the changes taking place and decide how to go forward.
Experience you can trust
I began my career working with teens in a closed ward at a state hospital.
After that, I worked for several years in hospital settings with teens, and then in outpatient clinics doing family therapy with kids and families.
From those experiences, I learned that my primary job is to form a solid relationship with the young person.
In fact, I consider that to be the biggest part of the job.
If I am successful at that and you, the parent, have given me the time and leeway to form that relationship, your teen will have an ally with no agenda other than to help them understand themselves.
Sometimes, working with the young person will mean consultations with parents. I raised two children of my own, so I know the anxiety you experience when you trust another adult to speak privately with your child.
I work to be transparent while also sustaining your child’s confidentiality. Please be aware that I am associated with competent psychiatric physicians, should we, in the rare case, decide we need to consider medication for your son or daughter.
Why wait a minute longer, struggling with your fears about your child?
You can stop struggling and do something positive.
