Therapy for Tweens & Teens
Growing up is complicated.
You don’t have to figure it out alone.
Between school, friendships, family, expectations, and figuring out who you are, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed, stuck, or like you’re supposed to have everything figured out. Therapy can be a place where you don’t have to pretend you’re okay or have all the answers. We’ll slow things down, make space for whatever you’re going through, and work together to help you feel more understood, confident, and comfortable being yourself.
Rather than focusing only on behaviors or symptoms, I'm interested in understanding what past experiences may be communicating. Anxiety, emotional outbursts, perfectionism, withdrawal, or self-criticism often make sense when we look at them through the lens of past experiences, relationships, and the nervous system.
Together, we’d explore what's beneath the surface while helping you build practical tools for managing emotions, navigating relationships, and responding to life's challenges with greater confidence.
Starting with Trust & Safety
I believe that meaningful therapy starts with feeling safe. Before your teen and I jump into difficult conversations, we'll spend time getting to know each other and creating a space where they can be their full, true self without worrying about being judged or pressured to talk about things they aren’t ready to share.
We’d explore what's been feeling hard for them and begin to make sense of their thoughts, emotions, and the physical sensations that come with them. We’d take things one step at a time, helping them feel more confident in understanding their emotions and responding to them in ways that feel manageable.
A big part of my work is helping your teen understand their nervous system. This involves learning why certain situations might leave them feeling anxious, overwhelmed, shut down, or reactive. Often, these responses aren't signs that something is wrong with them; they're ways your teen’s mind and body have learned to protect them. We’ll build awareness of these patterns while developing new ways for your teen to feel more grounded, connected, and confident in themselves.
For some teens, talking feels natural. Others communicate more comfortably through creative activities or simply by taking things slowly. Your teen and I would find the best way therapy can meet them where they are. We’ll work at a pace that feels manageable, creating space for them to open up, explore what they’re experiencing, and feel more comfortable being themselves.
Individual Counseling for Teens
The teenage years can bring a lot of emotional, social, and academic changes. Sometimes it can be hard to know what’s going on or how to put it into words. I work with teens experiencing a range of challenges, including:
Anxiety & Excessive Worry: Anxiety can show up as racing thoughts, constant worrying, perfectionism, restlessness, a tightness in your chest, or feeling like your mind won’t quiet down. It can make it harder to focus, sleep, enjoy time with friends, or feel present in everyday life.
Depression & Low Mood: Depression doesn’t always look like sadness. You might feel heavy, numb, disconnected, irritable, or like you’ve lost interest in things that used to matter to you. Low motivation, exhaustion, difficulty concentrating, or feeling hopeless can also be part of the picture.
Self-Esteem Concerns: It’s easy to get caught in the feeling that you’re not good enough, that you should be doing more, or that everyone else has things figured out. Therapy can provide space to understand where those critical thoughts come from and develop a kinder, more accepting relationship with yourself.
Emotion Regulation & Feeling Overwhelmed: Big emotions can sometimes feel like too much, whether that looks like anger, shutting down, crying, panic, or feeling completely overwhelmed. Together, we’d work on understanding what’s happening beneath those reactions and finding ways to move through emotions without feeling controlled by them.
School Stress & Perfectionism: Academic pressure, procrastination, difficulty focusing, fear of making mistakes, and feeling overwhelmed by expectations can take a toll. Therapy can help you understand what’s contributing to that stress and find ways to approach school with more flexibility and self-compassion.
Friendships & Relationships: Friendships and relationships can become complicated during middle and high school. You may be dealing with conflict, feeling left out, difficulty setting boundaries, people-pleasing, or uncertainty about where you fit in. Therapy can be a place to explore these experiences and better understand what you need from your relationships.
Difficult Relationships with Food & Body Image: You might find yourself using food, exercise, or restriction to cope with stress or difficult emotions, or becoming preoccupied with food, body image, or weight. We can explore the emotional needs underneath these patterns without shame or judgment.
Chronic Illness & Medical Challenges: Living with ongoing health concerns can bring pain, frustration, grief, uncertainty, and changes in how you see yourself. Therapy can provide space to process the emotional impact of chronic illness while navigating school, friendships, activities, and everyday life.
I use a variety of different therapies to help address concerns, including EMDR, IFS, and Somatic Therapy. We might look at how past experiences are affecting you now, learn ways to handle overwhelming emotions, and better understand the parts of yourself that feel scared, hurt, ashamed, or stuck.
EMDR
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) helps the brain process distressing memories, reducing their emotional intensity using bi-lateral stimulation, which involves eye movements, hand pulsars, tapping, and more. This therapy resolve unprocessed traumatic memories in the brain, which can help you feel more grounded and calm.
Internal Family Systems (IFS)
Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy views each person as a system of inner parts, some wounded, some protective, with a core, compassionate Self. IFS helps you access that Self to understand, befriend, and heal young, scared, and hurt parts. This modality facilitates a greater sense of confidence, calm, courage, curiosity, and connectedness.
Somatic Therapy
Somatic therapy focuses on the connection between the body and mind to help release trauma stored in physical sensations. By gently tuning into your body’s responses, you can restore regulation to your nervous system and process emotions safely. This approach supports greater resilience, self-awareness, and the ability to respond to life with calm and clarity.
Additional Therapy Techniques
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT helps you identify and shift unhelpful thought patterns that influence your emotions and behaviors. By increasing awareness of these connections, we can find helpful strategies for managing stress while alleviating negative thoughts that influence your views of yourself, others, and your future.
Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)
Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) is a compassionate, research-based approach that helps you understand and work through your emotions at their core. Rather than avoiding difficult feelings, we’ll explore them safely so they can bring clarity instead of overwhelm.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
ACT encourages greater flexibility in how you respond to difficult thoughts and feelings. This therapy encourages learning ways to make space for your full emotional experience, instead of resisting and focusing on negative beliefs, plus aligning your behavior with your values.
Creative & Experiential Therapy (Sand Tray, Play Therapy, Art as Therapy)
Creative and experiential approaches allow for processing emotions and experiences without words. Through sand tray, play, or art-based therapy, clients can explore stressful thoughts and feelings in ways that may feel more accessible, safe, and helpful.