Therapy for Teens

Anxiety & Stress

The worry that follows them everywhere. A test, a party, a conversation with a friend: any moment that should feel ordinary becomes charged with dread. In teenagers, anxiety often operates beneath awareness, quietly narrowing their world long before anyone names it. In our work, we explore what the anxiety is protecting and what it might be trying to say.

Read more about how I work with anxiety.

Depression & Low Motivation

They've gone quiet. The things that used to light them up don't seem to matter anymore. Sleep is off, grades are slipping, and there's a flatness that worries you. What often presents as laziness or disinterest is a kind of emotional withdrawal, a pulling away from a world that feels too demanding or too disappointing. We work to understand what has gone silent and why, rather than simply trying to lift the mood.

Read more about how I work with depression.

Anger & Acting Out

The explosive arguments, the defiance that seems to come from nowhere, the door that slams before you can finish a sentence. A teenager's anger is rarely just a mood. It is often doing the psychological work of separation, protecting against shame, vulnerability, or feelings they don't yet have words for. If you've been wondering why your teenager gets so angry, the answer often lies deeper than the surface conflict.

Self-Esteem

The voice that tells them they're not enough. Not smart enough, not attractive enough, not interesting enough. The constant measuring of themselves against peers, the scrolling through lives that look effortless while theirs feels like a struggle. Self-esteem difficulties in adolescence often trace back to expectations and relational patterns that became part of how they see themselves long ago. We work to understand where that critical voice came from, so it begins to lose its grip.

Read more about how I work with self-esteem.

Grief & Loss

A grandparent who died. A friend who disappeared. A family that no longer looks the way it did. Teenagers grieve in ways adults don't always recognize: through anger, numbness, recklessness, or a sudden withdrawal that seems out of character. What looks like acting out may be a teenager's way of managing a loss they haven't been able to put into words.

Read more about how I work with grief and loss.

Life Transitions

Starting a new school, parents separating, a move across the city or across the country. Even positive changes can unsettle a teenager's sense of who they are and where they belong. What parents often describe as teenage angst during these moments is frequently the sound of a young person trying to make sense of a world that shifted beneath them. I help teens find language for what the transition has stirred up.

Read more about how I work with life transitions.

Identity & Individuation

"Who am I if I'm not who my parents expect?" "Why do I feel like I'm performing all the time?" The work of becoming a separate person, with desires, values, and a direction that feel genuinely your own, is one of the central developmental tasks of adolescence. It can feel exhilarating and terrifying in equal measure. I create space for teens to sit with these questions rather than rushing toward answers, even when therapy for teenagers begins with silence or resistance.

Perfectionism

The essay rewritten until the deadline passes and they turn in nothing at all. The refusal to try anything they might not excel at immediately. The way a single mistake can feel like total failure. Perfectionism in teenagers often looks like ambition or high standards, but it is more often a defense against shame. The impossible standards protect them from feeling inadequate, disappointing, or exposed. What seems like striving for excellence is frequently an attempt to avoid the vulnerability of being seen as less than flawless. We explore what it would mean to risk being good enough instead of perfect.