Welcome to our dedicated space for supporting teenagers in Tampa and Jacksonville on their journey towards positive mental health. As experienced therapists deeply committed to the well-being of adolescents, we understand the unique challenges they face in today's world.
Our goal is to provide compassionate guidance and effective strategies to help teens thrive emotionally, mentally, and socially.
We help teens with depression, anxiety and trauma related symptoms.
As parents sometimes we do not understand the difference between everyday behavior and a teen who is having depression, anxiety or trauma symptoms.
Understanding Teen Mental Health
Adolescence is a crucial period of growth and development, marked by rapid physical, emotional, and cognitive changes. It's common for teenagers to experience various mental health issues such as stress, anxiety, depression, and peer pressure. Our team of caring therapists recognizes the importance of addressing these challenges with empathy and expertise.
At our practices in Tampa and Jacksonville, we take a holistic approach to teen mental health. We believe in creating a safe and supportive environment where teenagers feel heard, valued, and understood. Through personalized counseling sessions, we work collaboratively with teens to identify their strengths, explore their emotions, and develop coping skills to navigate life's ups and downs.
We use the following teen therapy session strategies:
Mindfulness and Relaxation Techniques: We teach teens practical mindfulness exercises and relaxation techniques to reduce stress, improve focus, and promote emotional balance.
Effective Communication Skills: Building strong communication skills empowers teens to express their thoughts and feelings assertively, fostering healthier relationships with family, friends, and peers.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): CBT helps teens identify and challenge negative thought patterns and develop positive coping strategies to manage difficult emotions and situations.
Healthy Lifestyle Habits: We emphasize the importance of nutrition, exercise, and sleep in maintaining overall well-being. Encouraging teens to adopt healthy lifestyle habits can significantly impact their mood and energy levels.
Peer Support and Social Connections: Establishing meaningful connections with supportive peers and adults plays a vital role in teens' mental health. We guide teens in building healthy social networks and seeking support when needed.
Developmentally teens value friendships
Friends become a priority and your teen begins to develop the ability to think about the world in an abstract sense. Teens feel as if they want to fit in and belong. Peer pressure, social media and bullying can all negatively impact your teen if they do not know how to problem solve.
A problem can also arise if a teen has negative influences, friendships, relationships or they have a strained relationship with a family member. Teens with low self-esteem are more vulnerable to other people’s opinions. This can lead to a teen acting negatively towards themself or a loved one.
Learning to make positive life choices, have healthier friends and grow in the right direction is very important for our teens. Our teen years are a foundation for our adult years and the transition to college. The earlier you intervene, typically the better the outcomes. New behaviors have to be established and healthy role models are also helpful.
Does you teen test the limits or push boundaries?
Remember, teens want to establish independence and do not yet know how. They also do not have a full understanding as to how consequences work and have difficulty understanding some behaviors have lifelong impacts. They can be more impulsive and make decisions based on a sporadic thoughts, without fully processing their own choices.
If you are worried about your teens choices, how they have feeling or decisions you see and do not necessarily agree with, they may need some guidance and support.
Although teens are learning what limits are, behavior associated with testing the limits may be based on depression, anxiety or trauma. Depressive, anxious or traumatic thoughts may prevent your teen from rationalizing and attempting to compromise on a healthier, safer or more sound decision.
Your teen may not even be aware that their thinking is irrational and they be explosive towards you, when you want to help. This can only further make things worse and your relationship may become strained. As a parent all you may really want is for your teen to be happy.
Are you worried about your teen’s behavior?
Teenage emotions are maturing and they are learning to process and understand how they feel. They may experience occasional mood swings, be increasingly sensitive and want to keep their distance from parents. It can be hard for your teen to ask for what they need when they are not even sure what is happening in the first place. Teens poor ability to understand and cope with their newly discovered emotions may lead to teen risky behavior, such as: self harm, drug use, alcohol use and sexual activity.
It is important your teen learns to connect and process uncomfortable emotions in a healthy way. Your teen may want to communicate more effectively, have better relationships and more friends, but may not know how to ask for this. Teens are just learning how to ask for what they need.
By coming to therapy teens have a great opportunity to have their emotions validated and learn healthy ways to talk about how they feel. By learning to cope with their anxious or depressed emotions, teens can regain control over their decision making. This can positively impact relationships, communication, behaviors and ultimate success. Therapy can strengthen the relationship you have with your teen if you are all willing to work for it.
Is my teen having depression, anxiety or trauma symptoms?
Although some behaviors that your teen may exhibit are pretty standard, it can also cause confusion of what is truly typical. It is developmentally appropriate for teens to have fluctuations in moods, and at times be upset. This usually does resolve and you do not always see this become cyclical behavior. It also seems more manageable from a parenting perspective.
If your teen is exhibiting increased irritability, loneliness, sadness, guilt, worry, fear, anxiety, anger, poor decision making, poor emotional stability, possible self harm and has little coping skills for a period of at least TWO weeks, it is important that you talk about counseling with them.
Depression symptoms can seem daunting to teens without support. Teens with depression can push people away, isolate themselves and have a hard time enjoying things. Your teen can be putting themself down, insulting who they are and have a hard time with the people who once used to comfort them. Depression in teens can look scary and they may start to self harm as well.
Anxiety is more gradual in teens and usually within a 6 month period. Anxiety and negative thinking can be heightened after a hard change, new happenings or things that are aggravating your teen. Teen anxiety can cause your teen to question their decisions, over think even the simplest question and also put themselves down. It is important for your teen to process these emotions and be able to feel safe again.
Trauma in teens can be explosive or hidden. At times we may not realize how much our teen is actually carrying with them. Trauma in teens can appear to be depression or anxiety at first, but by taking a deeper look trauma may actually be there. Trauma is hard for teens to talk about. But once they start to process their trauma in therapy, things begin to fall into place.
Our Therapists Can Help Your Teen
Teens can be struggling to find positive role models and find people who they trust. By coming to therapy your teen can establish trust with their therapist and learn to communicate what they need. In counseling the first step is trust and trust building. This trust can help your teen already start to learn some valuable skills, to help them get started on changing their behaviors.
In therapy your teen will have a safe space to speak freely. This safe place is meant for them to share, cry, and process memories and things on their mind. As therapists we are trained to be able to communicate and hold space for your teen.
Your teen will also learn to communicate in therapy. This will help you and your teen be able to relate to one another and strengthen your relationship.
As therapists we understand teens sometimes do not want to share with their mom or dad how they really feeling due to fear. This fear may hold them back and they may not want to see you cry or upset you. In therapy we can practice and your teen can learn to teen you what they need. This can make them feel free and more comfortable with you.
Your Teen Must Be Willing to Participate in Therapy
Not all teens want counseling. Remember that as a parent you can help guide them and point them in a better direction. If your teen is unsure of counseling, remember that it is normal. Anything new can be scary for ANYONE.
Please empathize with them, and ask them what they know about therapy? Maybe all they need is for your to normalize it and not make it a punishment. Therapy is a safe space for your teen to talk, not to punish or get in trouble. They can talk freely about any topic with no judgement.
The teens we meet with want to grow, evolve and change their thoughts. We also encourage your teen check out our blog and Social Media pages, that may help ease the anxiety of coming into therapy as well.
Can I join my teen’s counseling session?
Yes, we invite parents to join part of the first session, to help establish rapport and meet and greet everyone. We enjoying working together, alongside you all.
After the initial therapy session, we will focus on your teen and working one on one with them. If your teen would like to invite you into their session, we ask for them to decide. We do this to show your teen healthy boundaries and empower them to make independent choices.
If you would like to meet again after the initial session, we can schedule a separate session to discuss any concerns or parenting tips.
Please remember only some of our therapists offer family therapy services at this time. If you are searching for family therapy please let us know before scheduling your first session.
Our therapists would love to support you + your teen.
Get Started Today: If you're a teenager in Tampa or Jacksonville seeking support for your mental health journey, we're here to help.
Contact us to schedule a confidential consultation and take the first step towards a happier, healthier life.
