Messages For Teenagers

I need to say being nonjudgmental is about “not” seeing something as wrong or right.  But what else can I use?  Anyway I understand the struggles you are going through.  But there still are struggles that I still may not understand too.  I realize that.  I am open to hearing your perspective and your way of looking at life. The gift I have as a therapist is that I can be nonjudgmental about you and your life.  I need to remain a nonjudgmental partner if I can really get to understand what you are going through and try to help you. Being nonjudgmental is about seeing something as wrong or right.  Having judgments made about you are a constant when you are a teenager.  There is always someone having an opinion about what you “should” do. I do not see you as “shoulds”, but we look together at options and together figure out what may be best for you. There are times we all need to use support and a new perspective on life.

Messages For Parents

Parenting is one of the greatest joys and most challenging experiences of our lives. We want the best for our children but we soon realize that there are many aspects that are out of our control.  We try to convince ourselves that this isn’t true but ultimately we come to respect that our teaching, modeling and helping is a fraction of what it was when our children were younger.

This is especially difficult for many parents who live in the DC metro area.  The parents here are highly educated and highly functioning individuals who have been able to achieve on a very high level.  Even if they don’t want to stress their children, it is already there in the culture of where they live.   I hear from parents that they see the stress and strain on their teens who often work so hard that they are feeling anxious and depressed.  Parents can’t help to have so much anxiety about their children because they want the best for them.  They want to see their children to be successful in many ways.  They want their children to have a life that is satisfied in their careers and become financially successful.  So many teens feel so badly about themselves that they feel they cannot measure up to the pressures and the comparisons to others.

With teens come the issues of alcohol and drug use which creates its own dynamics with parents who have no idea of what to do in their child’s circumstance.  Mothers and fathers can have very different ideas of the ways how to deal with these issues.

I want to offer parents the opportunity to discuss and come to a wider awareness of what their teen is going through.   Having the place to discuss these issues with a professional gives parents the ability at their teen’s situation from a different perspective.