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Teen Counseling in San Antonio

Adolescence is typically considered to be the developmental stage between 13 and 18 years of age, where individuals are most commonly called teenagers. There are immense changes during this period of time, socially, emotionally, cognitively, and behaviorally, making counseling these teens and supporting their parents especially important.

What is Teen Counseling?

Although traditional talk therapy is the main medium for counseling teens, due to the incredible changes in the way teens think and feel, a more active approach to therapy is typically the most successful. This generally includes a mix of talk and activity therapy. Throughout the counseling process, decision-making and how the teen views the world is the primary focus, along with serious mental health symptoms. No teen exists in a vacuum, however, and family involvement, specifically family consultations or therapy should be an active part of any teens treatment.

Common Issues for Teens

This is the primary age for issues surrounding identity and one’s peer group to be at the forefront, which can appear to cause anxiety or depressive symptoms. The most severe of these symptoms result due to the teen’s increased capacity for actions, due to their age, with the continued emotional instability from younger years. This can result in significant behaviors such as running away, cutting or self-harming, suicidal thoughts or attempts, and truancy or violence. While these actions can occur at any age, they are most concerning in adolescence due to the teen’s increased physical abilities, freedom, and reliance on their peer group. 

Diagnosing Teens

One of the largest issues in diagnosing teenagers is separating the exhibited behaviors into developmentally appropriate versus indicative of significant mental health issues. The diagnosis that most often toes this line is Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD). This disorder is characterized by a pattern of significantly disruptive behavior that is exhibited towards individuals beyond the teenager’s primary family group. There must be a pattern of the teen showing a combination of angry or irritable mood, argumentative or defiant behavior, and vindictiveness that impairs the functioning of the teen and the family beyond what is developmentally appropriate. While there is some debate about the frequency that these occur, it must be at least weekly with the severity of the behavior’s impact being taken into account.

These behaviors must be displayed with some frequency over at least a six month period of time, and cannot be accounted for by trauma, loss, or other mental illness in the teen’s life.

Treatments in Teen Counseling

Although most counseling theories or practices can have some efficacy for working with teens, the therapies that generally work best are ones that focus on strategies that change the nature of decision-making. Reality Therapy, or the method by addressing decisions through a more practical system, has been shown to be one of the most effective therapies with teens. This approach challenges the teen in what they are hoping to achieve through their actions, and seek alternative measures to fulfill that need without additional harm to the teen or their environment. Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) or other cognitive-based therapies have also shown to be effective in addressing the underlying emotions and thoughts of teenagers, to help them resolve underlying emotional strife and choose different behaviors.

Resources Available for Teens

Here are additional resources for cutting-edge treatments and community resources for Teen Counseling.

If you know a teenager that has been struggling in San Antonio, counseling or therapy services are available to help at Green Mountain Counseling. Contact us for San Antonio-based teen counseling.