Counseling for Teens & Tweens
Working with teens and tweens has been part of my practice since the 1990’s. I enjoy the challenge and rewards of working with teens who are ready to work on overcoming the obstacles that come with adolescence. Telephone counseling is perfect for teenagers since they already feel right at home talking on the phone.
Since the 1990’s, I have worked in schools, adolescent treatment centers, and through private practice, collaborated with schools of all sizes.
Parent Coaching & Counseling
When it comes to your kids, there is nothing more important so you want to trust that you will get the best therapist for your teen. It is important to get a counselor that will include you in the process without betraying your teenager’s trust. We will talk about how confidentiality with teens work when you call. Parenting is not a one size fits all situation, so I am careful to learn about your family before suggesting best practices that set your kids up for success.
Family Counseling
80% of behavior change in tweens and teens is directly related to behavior change in parents. This means that I expect parents to play an active role in their kids’ counseling. While this does not mean attending all sessions with your teenagers, it does mean being available to join the telephone counseling session with them, when necessary or wanted, to discuss difficult topics. I am honest with each of you about when you have a good point and when you may need to challenge your assumptions.
Questions about Teen Counseling
Will you tell my parents everything I say?
I work VERY hard to protect your privacy. Your parents have the right to ask me about our sessions, and if they insist, I will have to share information with them, however, I will encourage them to be sure they need to know. Most parents are just fine with me not sharing details of our sessions because they understand that you will be more likely to talk openly with me if you trust that it is safe.
If you are in danger of hurting yourself, I will definitely talk with your parents so that you are safe and sound.
You do have a right to some privacy, but parents have a right to know, especially when they are concerned. On the other hand, if you would like me to talk with your parents about something you have told me, I am happy to consider it. Usually, it is best for you to talk with them yourself since that is a great skill to have, but sometimes it will make sense for me to talk with them behind the scenes though.
Do you just take sides with parents?
No. Absolutely not. Eighty percent (80%) of behavior change in teenagers is directly related to behavior change in parents. I am clear about this with your folks. They will know that I’ll have suggestions for them that will make your life easier. Your job is to make changes that make their job as parents a bit easier as well. But rest assured, if you parents ground you for 6 months because you came in 10 minutes late, I will call them out on the unreasonable consequence. At the same time, if you sneak out and steal the car to go joy-riding, I’ll call you out as well. I will not take sides. I will support each of you when you are making a good point.
Most teenagers find my approach refreshing because I am not intimidated by parents at all. I do not see it as my job to be a substitute parent, or a cheerleader for parents.
Most parents appreciate my approach because they can trust me to be honest with them, and to be honest with their kids when they are making bad decisions.
My feelings are SO strong. Why can’t I handle them?
There are a number of reasons for this, but I’ll distill it down this way: Your brain develops from the inside out, with the frontal lobe being the last part to mature. Your emotions are seated in the unconscious mind, which is in the middle of your brain, which is very developed (so you have very adult feelings). Those feelings travel outward to the frontal lobe to be understood and integrated into life. But since that frontal lobe is the last part to develop (it’s not done until your mid-20’s).
So, you have these intense, adult feelings, but not all the tools to make sense of them or manage them! It is incredibly frustrating. I can help you stimulate that frontal lobe to grow a bit faster by giving you specific tools that have been shown to work very well; however, time will be the most influential part of that brain maturation.
The other piece that is important to you learning to handle emotions is how your parents handle theirs (Ahem . . . parents. . . read that again . . .).
Jonathan F. Anderson, LCMHC, LPC-s
Jonathan is dually licensed in North Carolina as a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor (LCMHC, formerly LPC) and in Texas as a Licensed Professional Counselor Supervisor (LPC-s). He completed his Bachelor‘s degree at the University of Texas, Austin, in 1994, and his Master’s Degree at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, in 1997. Jonathan has been a leader in the teletherapy industry for over 20-years. He has written telephone counseling training protocols for an international teletherapy provider and was the lead trainer at the same organization. Jonathan has completed Level II of the rigorous Gottman Method of Couples Counseling, and is recognized as an advanced provider of Critical Incident Stress Debriefing and Management. He is happy to be able to apply his expertise of online and telephone counseling to his trauma response and to all of his counseling services.