Raising Teens: Daily life beyond your comfort zone

Managing teens and young adults can be challenging, unpredictable, and isolating.

Efforts to try and set limits, manage their behaviors, or handle conflict can quickly escalate into meltdowns, hostility, or coldness.

And it’s more complicated with teens navigating stress, unstable moods, addictions, or mental health issues.

How my clients describe their challenges:

“I feel like we’ve lost our connection — we spend almost no time together and I have no idea how to reach her.”

“We argue, or there’s silence. There’s no in-between. It’s like the relationship is just drying up completely.”

“She’s stressed about school, friends, and the future. I’m caught between pushing and supporting, and I worry I’m doing neither of them right.”

“Is there something happening behind the scenes I don’t know about? What if he’s hiding a bigger problem? I’m scared to ask, and I’m also scared of the answer.”

“What if I push too hard? Or what if I don’t do enough and it gets worse? It’s paralyzing.”

Learning what actually works

Devoted and determined parents put in massive amounts of thought and energy trying to reach their kid, but it doesn’t translate into a real connection, or the practical support and influence they so desperately want to provide.

What’s worse, their interventions and efforts to parent or even connect can so easily backfire and create more distance and conflict. 

In this series I’ll share my proven and practical trade secrets from 25 years as a therapist and coach both working with teens and teaching parents to connect to their kids.

Fortunately, even the tiniest amount of insight and learning will immediately impact your relationship with your teen. Teens are surprisingly sensitive — when you change how you’re doing things, even a little, they pick up on it.

These sessions will help you get on solid footing with your kid, give you both some relief from a strained or isolated relationship, and allow you to provide genuine support and influence.