Individual therapy offers teens the opportunity to slow down, look within, and discuss life’s challenges with a professional who can help them navigate them. Therapy involves a process of change—whether in thoughts, mindsets, behaviors and circumstances. Understanding how therapists support teens with change is an important part of that process. Change can be difficult for anyone, especially for teens balancing the demands of school, family, and friendships. Even so, meaningful change is still possible.
Why it’s Difficult to Change
Change is hard because of the uncertainty that comes with it.
What happens if I change? What happens if I don’t? Is change even possible for me?
These are common questions that may come up for teens when they think about doing something new or different. Moreover, they may consider how change could impact their relationships with their families, friends, and peers.
Ambivalence around change is normal and part of the process. Change requires us to step out of our comfort zones, away from what is familiar and safe to us, towards the unknown. That can be scary, but with courage, small steps and support, change is possible and can even be exciting.
Here’s how therapists support teens with change.
Supportive Communication
Therapists will use varying communication styles to support teenage client’s with change. Motivational Interviewing helps teens talk through ambivalence and increase readiness for change. This style of communication involves collaboration between the teen and their therapist in which they talk about what matters most to them, explore what change could look like and problem-solve barriers to change. Therapists will listen closely to understand the client’s point of view, support them in considering their choices, and provide information to help them make decisions. Together they will put together an action plan the teen will be engage in to reach their goals.
Helping Teens Identify What Matters Most to Them
Knowing what matters most and why can play significant role in helping teens navigate change. Therapists support teens in exploring core values to shape meaningful direction in their lives. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a therapeutic approach that emphasizes living in alignment with one’s values while staying present, even through difficult thoughts and emotions. The goal of ACT is to build mental flexibility through acceptance and mindfulness. It can also help teens cope with challenging internal experiences that might otherwise make change feel overwhelming and difficult to follow through on.
Offering Skills that Help Create Change
Therapists use various therapy approaches to help teens develop skills that support change.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) helps client’s assess and reframe thoughts and beliefs that stand between them and their goals. A therapist may have a teen track their thoughts in order to understand their connection to emotions and behaviors.
Behavioral activation is a behavioral approach that helps teens increase their motivation and improve their mood by engaging in rewarding activities. Along with their therapist’s support, teens come up with a list of activities and start with the easiest task moving up towards the most challenging one. The idea is that motivation grows with action, like a snowball effect.
Gradual exposure experimentation, often referred to as Exposure Therapy, involves intentionally facing feared and uncomfortable situations in small, manageable steps. In collaboration with their therapist, teens can engage in these experiences to test their expectations and build tolerance for discomfort. At times, teens may anticipate outcomes that do not match reality, and these assumptions can limit their ability to live authentically. Gradual exposure can help challenge those beliefs and open the door for more flexible thoughts and choices.
Setting Realistic Expectations
Change takes time.
Change doesn’t happen immediately, nor all at once. It takes small steps, across time, to see results. Therapists help teens develop realistic expectations about the timing of change
Setbacks are normal.
Like any process, change involves setbacks. Falling back into old patterns is a normal part of growth. It is important not to get wrapped up in the emotions that setbacks can bring such as guilt, shame or embarrassment. Therapist help teens process these feelings, assess what didn’t go as planned and make adjustments that move them forward towards their goals.
Change can be hard, especially for teens. It means stepping out your comfort zone and facing the unknown. Although it can be scary, change can also be exciting. With time, courage and support, growth is possible.
If you or your teen is struggling to make changes in their lives and want support our therapists Shantal Placido, LCSW; Spencer McCauley, LCSW; and Teresa Giolitto, LMFT are here to help you navigate this chapter in your life with confidence and support.
Please email us at spencerstherapypractice@gmail.com or click the green “Contact Us” button at the upper right hand corner of the page.
Author: Shantal Placido, LCSW
