teens Archives - Hope Heal Change

Being a Teen in 2024: How to Understand and Start Helping our Teens

Posted on January 11, 2024July 9, 2024 by hopehealchange

The young generation has it tough in a variety of ways. While I could spend the next 5,000 words explaining why, I’ll temper my explanation down to a small vent session. Then, I’ll provide some brief details on how we are helping teens and preteens at our practice before finally giving some communication tips and tricks for home. Helping Teens Then... It’s 1998. It’s not going well with your girlfriend. After school, the two of you meet by the bleachers and you make a really hard decision — “It’s not you, it’s me.” You break up, you cry, your parents hopefully rub your back that night and tell you it’s going to be okay. You dodge school for a day telling your mom that you have a horrible headache in the morning and maybe she lets you stay home or maybe you grew up in one of those households where you were going to school unless the spiritual leader was reading your last rites. Eventually, you face the awkwardness of having to still be in math class together. Read more [...]

A Perspective on Teens and Young Adults in Counseling (Part 1)

Posted on February 27, 2020July 9, 2024 by hopehealchange

A Quick Story of Realization with Counseling Teens When it comes to counseling teens, I remember early in my counseling career I was assisting a client through a break-up. While I was asking questions about the split, he smirked and said, "It's way harder breaking up these days. When you were in high school, it was easy." My first reaction was to wonder how old he thought I was. My second reaction was explaining that breaking up was still brutal back then. However, I soon realized he was spot on after we further explored his thoughts. High school breakups in 2020 are much more difficult to navigate. When I had conflict with anybody- friend, crush or significant other -I only had to awkwardly pass them in the hallway. Worst case, I had to choose a seat on the other side of the room. I didn't have to worry about blocking them on social media. I didn't have to worry about if they would find out that I blocked them. Nor did I worry about getting a "snap" or text from one of their friends Read more [...]