Teen years are the crucial period of development for teenagers. It is the state where children develop their physical and mental attributes abundantly. It is a very sensitive phase that even a few life circumstances can affect the mental health and conviction of the individuals.
Teens usually experience a hike in mood swings and different kinds of emotions such as stress, anxiety, and even feel depressed due to some external factors such as school/ college issues, losing valuable friendships, relationship & family problems but sometimes this distress might raise to an extreme level that you can’t help but reach out for an experienced therapist in MN for teen counseling.
What Is Teen Counseling?
Teen counseling is a specialized therapeutic approach that helps in understanding the mental health conditions of teens and coming up with an appropriate solution. During teen counseling, the teens are encouraged to take part in talk therapy to share and express their feelings, desires, and emotions with a mental health expert. The therapist helps the individual in identifying & solving the problems and come up with a healthy coping mechanism.
What Are The Various Types Of Teen Counseling?
Depending on the issues there are various kinds of counseling are available for teens. The common therapies for teens are listed below:
• Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT):
Cognitive behavior therapy focuses on a person’s thoughts, attitude, and beliefs that affect their behavior and feelings. It is also helpful in treating various mental health problems in teens who are dealing with depression, trauma, and anxiety.
A therapist who specializes in CBT will identify the harmful thought patterns your teen is facing and replace them with positive and realistic thoughts. CBT therapy is also helpful for people to cope with complicated relationships and many other common life problems. We have experienced teletherapists in Minnesota who are professional in providing cognitive behavioral therapy for your teen.
• Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT):
Dialectical behavior therapy is the modified version of Cognitive behavioral therapy that focuses on teaching people how to live in the present moment, regulate stress, develop healthy ways to cope with stress, and improve their relationships with other people.
While CBT focuses on identifying and changing the negative thought patterns towards positive behavioral changes, DBT helps to treat suicidal and other self-destructive thoughts in teens by helping them take responsibility and find a healthy way to cope up with intense emotions and conflicts.
• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT):
Acceptance and commitment therapy helps teens to understand and accept their inner feelings and emotions. It allows inner feelings and thoughts to happen without ignoring or trying to change them.
• Family therapy:
Family therapy is part of psychotherapy that helps in improving the relationship between family members including children, spouse, parents, siblings, grandparents, and other family members and is also helpful in improving the bond and connection between parents and children as a part of teen counseling.
• Interpersonal therapy (IPT):
Interpersonal therapy is used to treat psychological conditions such as depression in teens between the ages of 12 to 18. IPT focuses on the interpersonal relationships and social interactions that affect mental health and wellbeing. Interpersonal therapy has shown positive results for treating depression in adults and is also recommended as a treatment for teens dealing with depression.
• Mentalization-based therapy (MBT):
Mentalization-based therapy is long-term psychotherapy commonly seen in treating children and teens. It has the ability to recognize the emotions as well as the mental state that are separate from the actions. MBT helps teens and children who are struggling with their identity about who they are.
• Group therapy:
In group therapy, it involves one or more psychotherapists working with multiple patients at a time. This approach improves your teen’s social skills while also helping them learn how other teens are coping with mental health issues constructively.
• Supportive therapy:
Supportive-expressive therapy is an evidence-based psychotherapy that relies on the therapeutic alliance to relieve the symptoms. It restores relation to reality, improves self-esteem, regulates impulses & negative thoughts, and reinforces the ability to cope with challenges and life stressors. It is often practiced for teens to address the problems and cope with them in a healthy way.
When Does a Teen Need Counseling?
Therapy given by a mental health care expert helps to overcome a variety of mental help problems in teens including stress, depression, hopelessness, and helps your teen realize the worth of life and discover themselves. Therapy can also help deal with minor issues and avoid them from becoming major issues later on. Your teen may need counseling if he? She is facing some underlying conditions such as:
- Autism
- Anxiety disorder
- Depression
- Discovering gender identity
- Loneliness
- Personality disorders
- Relationship problems
- Suicidal thoughts, self-harm, or risky behaviors
- Cultural or racial discrimination
- Coping with a chronic health condition
- Hyperactivity disorder/ Attention-deficit (ADHD)
- Trauma
- Dealing with a disability
- Low self-esteem
How to Prepare
If you are thinking to give counseling for your teen, talk to a mental health care professional. Don’t worry if your teen is not ready or interested to talk to the therapist, of course, many teens refuse to talk about their problems and mental health condition to someone new. But encourage them to try therapy for a few sessions so that they will see the positive results very soon and if you’re teen still outright refuses to take counseling you can discuss it with the therapist so that you can get new ideas to help your teen cope better.
A Word From Teletherapy MN
Psychotherapy is not a quick fix but rather a rich and complex process that needs patience and consistency. Psychotherapy helps in improving the teen’s mental health and reduces symptoms over time.
A combination of different psychotherapy approaches can also be helpful and in some cases, psychotherapy along with medication can show effective results.
Who we are
We have licensed teletherapists in Minneapolis providing the best online therapy services. We are equipped with a team of licensed psychotherapists with great experience in fields such as cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy, individual therapy, couples therapy, dialectical behavior therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, and more to help people cope with different mental health problems.