Our counselors offer adolescent therapy as a compassionate space for your teen to navigate life’s challenges.
Do any of these situations apply to you?
- Are you worried about your teen’s choices?
- Are you concerned that your teen is unhappy or stressed about school?
- Do you worry that your teen doesn’t have friends, has trouble keeping friends, or is hanging out with the wrong crowd?
- Does your teen participate in high-risk behaviors (substance use/abuse, promiscuity, sexting, cutting, etc.) that have become a pattern.
Being a teen is a challenging job…AND…so is being the parent of a teen!
Sometimes it’s hard to sort out what is typical teen behavior from worrisome teen behavior.
Even kids with great support systems may struggle with feelings of isolation, sadness and hidden anxieties and can benefit from adolescent therapy.
We can help you with these issues and will partner with you to help balance your teen’s growing need for independence with creative and supportive ways of parenting.
Whether your teen is navigating school, depression and anxiety, anger or family situations, we offer adolescent therapy options tailored to each teen.
A Little Bit about Getting Started
When starting therapy, we find it helpful to meet with parents and the teen together for the first adolescent therapy session. If you are having trouble getting your teen to come to counseling we can meet with you alone first, working with you to bring your teen into therapy when they are ready. We know it can be overwhelming trying to get your child to come to a teen therapy center.
The first session is typically 1 hour. The next sessions may last for 45-60 minutes.
We meet with you and your teen for part of the time.
We develop a plan after the first adolescent therapy session and use the information and goals discussed in the initial session to tailor the plan to your family.
We may contact your teen’s school (with your permission) and assist with any school issues.
We also work collaboratively with other professionals who may be involved with your teen.
We engage in talk therapy with adolescents, but sometimes when teens aren’t comfortable talking, we use alternative methods to help them work through their problems. We find that using other therapeutic interventions, including art and sand therapy, is extremely beneficial to provide teens with additional tools to work through and address concerns in adolescent therapy.
It is important to remember that just as troublesome behaviors may have persisted over time it will also take time to develop new behavior patterns and improved relationships.
“My daughter had been seeing a therapist for months, and not only was it not helping her anxiety issues but I could barely get her to go to an appointment. She simply did not click with the therapist and felt that the therapist did not care about her problems. A family friend recommended Crossroads Family Counseling Center, and when I called, my daughter was immediately given an appointment. I have seen improvement with my daughter since she began counseling especially in her anxiety and coping skills. She really trusts her therapist and that means a lot as a teenager. I can also tell at times that when my daughter is speaking to me she is choosing her words thoughtfully instead of simply yelling and I can tell that is something she has learned in counseling. There have been a few occasions when my daughter has been completely stressed out or depressed because of school and she is feeling bad enough to make me nervous. Whether I called or emailed the therapist she always got back to me quickly. I feel that I can truly depend on the therapist to be there for my daughter and as a parent that means everything.”
Our counselors are trained to connect with and support teens and parents. Contact us for adolescent therapy throughout Northern Virginia, including Fairfax and its surrounding areas.
