Teen Therapy

Do You Worry About Your Teen’s Well-being?

Are you considering counseling for teens because you’re the parent or guardian of a teenager who is struggling with anxiety, depression, substance abuse, or a complicated relationship with Christ?

Do you get the sense that they feel unseen, unheard, misunderstood, or even unloved? Are they having trouble navigating academics, making friends, or feeling accepted for who they are?

Perhaps they have a broken relationship with their mother or father, and it’s resulted in low self-worth and a fear of abandonment or rejection. Or maybe your teen assumes negative things about themselves, so they either avoid people or spend a lot of time seeking approval from others.

Teenagers Can Show Signs Of Distress In Unique Ways

They may be:

disconnected, distant, emotionally detached
constantly worried, stressed out, or on-guard
irritable, moody, defiant toward authority figures
lonely, sad, lost, hopeless, afraid of the future
getting headaches, gaining/losing weight, or missing school often

Perhaps your teenager has experienced trauma, bullying, or past abuse that’s corrupted their sense of trust and safety. Or maybe they have a skewed perspective of God because they’ve never experienced that kind of unconditional love.

All of these factors can add to how hard it already is to be a teenager, which is why our counselors at Life Training Christian Counseling want to help. Our purpose is to help your teenager heal emotional wounds, repair their relationship with Christ, and become their own person while still honoring the adults in their life.

Teenagers Have A Tough Time Of Things All-Around

After all, these are some of the most transformative years of their lives, so it’s understandable that they would be testing boundaries and running into trouble occasionally. However, when a teen is overcome by their emotions or past experiences, it makes life a lot more difficult.

In one survey, one in six teens reported experiencing negative emotions often or all of the time.* And in the three months prior to that survey, 74 percent of teens ages 13 to 19 reported feelings of loneliness.** Both of these statistics highlight the growing need for teen therapy and counseling.

However, those figures don’t even begin to account for the myriad distractions and negative influences that teens face:

social media, cell phones, gaming, internet streaming
divorce, moving around a lot, exposure to domestic violence
toxic politics, society creating boxes and labels for identity
lack of modeling of servant leadership in teen’s life

Over time, these forces can lay the groundwork for mental health issues, behavioral problems, and a loss of connection to God. Unfortunately, many teens are wary about opening up to a counselor or therapist because they feel like they’ll be ignored or invalidated.

And because there’s not a lot of discussion in schools or churches about mental health, teens also worry they’ll be rejected by parents, peers, and teachers. So there’s not a lot of people they feel they can trust.

However, working with one of our counselors gives your teen the chance to be known, heard, and accepted for who they are while allowing them to create their own roadmap to the future.

Counseling Offers Teens A Place To Explore And Be Themselves

With our teen and preteen counselors at Life Training Christian Counseling, there are no expectations. We want your child to know that it’s okay to come as they are—complete with their brokenness, confusion, and pain—because God is big enough to handle it all.

Our goal is to offer your teen a safe space to gain insight into themselves and process emotions—a place to build healthy coping skills, set boundaries, and learn how to communicate clearly. Just as importantly, we want to help them explore their relationship with Christ and learn how to accept the grace of the Lord.

We can also teach your teen about temperament, using their strengths and weaknesses to honor God, and how to set aside the lies of the world and embrace biblical truths.

How Do You Get Started With Teen Counseling?

Prior to our first face-to-face meeting, we’ll have your teen fill out a registration form and a multiple-choice temperament questionnaire, which usually takes about 10 minutes. That will help us get a little background on their needs and goals, family history, personal experiences, and relationship with God.

Our first session will begin with a brief intro, allowing your teen to get to know their counselor and build empathy and rapport together. We’ll talk about why they want to be there, what’s important to them, and how they view their family life or relationship with Christ—but we don’t have to go too deep. We let the client lead the conversation, which facilitates building trust and makes it feel safer to truly open up.

How Does Counseling For Teens Create Change?

At Life Training Christian Counseling, all of our licensed clinicians are also certified as temperament counselors. That means we use an assessment to help us understand a client’s inborn nature and God-given needs. We also focus on the things that are inherently unique to the individual, which allows us to go beyond symptom relief and address what is going on deep down at the person’s core.

Once we identify your teen’s temperament—those inherent needs that may be causing issues if they are not being met—we can start the real work. We’ll help your teen explore Holy Scripture to understand the Heart of Christ, discuss how to apply Scripture to specific troubles, and identify false beliefs about themselves and God that could be affecting their mental and spiritual well-being.

We’ll also equip you and your teen with a three-part report that can help you both navigate these years with greater ease:

Part One identifies your teen’s temperament and its associated traits so that both parent and child understand what that entails.
Part Two offers personal recommendations for the teen to learn to meet those needs in God-honoring ways.
Part Three provides you, the parent, with practical tools for supporting your teen and creating environments that they can flourish in.

We live in a confusing and broken world, so it’s easy to feel lost and broken as well—but there is hope. By looking at the soul’s needs rather than just symptoms, your teen can heal, build relationships, and grow into the person they were meant to be. In time, they can begin walking in the Freedom of the Gospel, realizing that they are fully known and unconditionally loved.

Perhaps You’re Considering Counseling But Your Teen Has Concerns…

Will I be judged for my failures?

Absolutely not. It is not our place to judge, but rather to encourage and direct you to the Holy Scriptures. Remember 2 Corinthians 12:9, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” God knows we are imperfect and that we’ll fail. But God’s grace protects us. So we have to permit ourselves to be imperfect while still having the space to acknowledge faults.

Will you tell my parents what we discuss in teen counseling sessions?

Confidentiality is important, and though parents are involved in the process, we’ll only share information about our sessions after you are informed and a conversation has been had. It’s important to honor your mother and father, so we encourage you to talk with your parents about hard topics, and we will support you as you do so.

Counseling for teens is not a taddle session, but there is a difference between privacy and confidentiality. That said, we’ll never betray your trust on behalf of transparency.

What if my circumstances never change?

While we do not always have control over our external circumstances, we can control matters of the heart. If you’re willing, you can heal and learn how to seek the Lord for strength in all situations.

You can come to understand yourself, communicate emotions better, and rebuild fractured relationships. And—yes—you can alter your circumstances through love, grace, and a true heart change that puts you in direct connection with the Lord and all that is possible through Him.

Let Us Help You Make These Years The Best They Can Be

If you are a teen or the parent of a teenager who is having trouble navigating life, our counselors at Life Training Christian Counseling want to help. Please call 502 717 5433 for your free, 15-minute consultation to see how our online and in-person counseling services can support your teen in healing, overcoming challenges, and cultivating a profound relationship with Christ.

* https://www.nami.org/Support-Education/Publications-Reports/Survey-Reports/Poll-of-Teen-Mental-Health-from-Teens-Themselves-(2022)
**https://explore.globalyouthculture.net/?utm_source=gycmain&utm_medium=header