Teens in Counselling

Adolescence is an exciting, but often stressful time, as teens have to navigate complex relationship dynamics with friends, drugs/alcohol use, academics and career planning, and address any challenges within their family. Counselling can help teens feel supported during stressful situations and address or prevent common adolescent problems such as depression, anxiety, or behaviour problems. Having someone objective outside of their family to talk with, allows teens to increase their problem solving skills and can assist them in building coping strategies that will become life skills useful to them well into their adult lives.
Pam begins working with teens (13-15 years old) by having an initial appointment with parent/s to discuss your concerns, how your teen is doing - at school, with friends and at home, and to review their developmental history. This session is scheduled for 1.5 hours. After this meeting, Pam will meet with your teen for an ‘assessment period’ of three to four sessions. This ‘assessment period’ will allow Pam to get to know your teen and understand their perspectives while also determining the best means of addressing both their concerns and yours.

Pam then meets with parents for a Feedback Session to provide you with input and discuss whether any ongoing Individual or Family counselling may be helpful for your teen. Teens are made aware of Pam’s impressions and recommendations that she has before this Feedback Session. They are welcome and encouraged to join this session, but they are not required to.

Working with parents collaboratively, if counselling goals are agreed upon and parents determine that they want to have their teen continue working with Pam, regular and ongoing Review Meetings with parent/s will maximum the benefits teens can receive in counselling. Pam will provide parent/s with ongoing feedback to ensure that the goals for counselling are relevant to their child’s developmental stage, individual abilities, and family situation. Progress in meeting the goals of treatment will also be reviewed regularly.

For older teens (16-19) or young adults where the teen is seeking counselling for themselves, parents are asked to join the initial 1.5 hour appointment for the first half hour and then the remainder of the time will be spend with the teen. Review meetings are still done usually every 10 to 12 sessions, with the primary difference being that the teen DOES attend and participates actively.

Confidentiality of sessions is often a real concern for teens. Pam is attentive to parents’ need for some feedback about the process of counselling, but also respects the need for privacy of her teenage clients. This is something that Pam talks about openly and regularly with both parents and teens so that their different needs can be balanced in a way that is most helpful to everyone.