Effective Youth and Parent Counselling: Strategies for Strengthening Family Relationships
Common Challenges for Youth and in Youth-Parent Relationships
Youth and children often express challenging emotional responses and process past negative experiences through behaviour. All behaviour has meaning from an attachment, interpersonal, and relational lens. Attachment needs change in youth and adolescence towards more independence and autonomy; however, as the frontal lobe of the brain is not fully developed until age 25, challenges surrounding safety, impulse control, consequences, and risk can arise due to brain development not matching attachment desires for independence. A family relationship therapist can help you navigate this important transitional period through youth-parent counselling.
Youth can experience significant mental health challenges, such as anxiety, depression, and trauma responses. Youth can also have social and relationship concerns with their peers, as well as school challenges surrounding neurodiversity and the education system.
Supporting Youth With Neurodiversity
Youth experiencing neurodivergent brain differences, such as with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), often benefit from counselling support to acknowledge the unique strengths, challenges, and adaptations that may be present. Support navigating school systems can also be supportive for these families.
Creating a collaborative team of support works best for youth and families for improving family relationships.
Common Challenges for Families
Families can experience challenges, such as those surrounding violence, alcohol/substance use, grief and loss, finances, childhood or intergenerational trauma, and divorce/co-parenting. These challenges can overwhelm the inherent strength and resilience of a family impacting their ability to cope.
Support can be helpful to help guide youth and families back to their innate healing capacity and resilience. I believe all individuals and families do the best they can given the circumstances at the time.
How Youth-Parent Counselling Can Help
Counselling can support a greater understanding of the experiences of distress, adversity, violence, abuse, neglect, grief, and loss on family systems. Through family relationship counselling, compassion can be offered for the challenges present while the unique strengths, resources, and resiliency of the youth and family system can also be highlighted.
It can be challenging for parents/caregivers and their children/youth to figure out ways to co-regulate in their family system when they are experiencing independent challenges in regulating their own emotions and behaviours. In the challenging time of pre and during adolescence, having a therapist support the family by fostering understanding between each member's attachment needs for connection and independence can be incredibly helpful for caregiver-adolescent interactions.
A number of therapy approaches can help children, youth, and parents/caregivers.
Teens and youth often gravitate towards processing challenging past experiences, family conflict, challenges with peers, or experiences of neurodivergence through expressive art techniques such as play, art, and somatic techniques. Expressive art and play therapy approaches offer tools for children and youth to express their inner worlds, difficult emotions/feelings, and traumatic experiences in a safe manner.
Cognitive approaches of examining anxious thought patterns, acknowledging strengths, and creating coping skills can also be helpful.
Mindfulness approaches to calm nervous systems and resource support to help advocate within school, medical, or mental health systems can also be supportive.
Impacts of Trauma
Traumatic experiences impact a child's development, as well as their ability to attach to their caregiver and their caregiver's ability to be attuned to them. For families who have experienced chronic and complex trauma, counselling can help break intergenerational patterns and the repetition of traumatic experiences.
Counselling can also provide a safe place to process challenging familial experiences to move towards greater coping, change, and healing.
What to Expect in Family Relationship Counselling Sessions
I begin counselling with a session with the parent, caregiver, or guardian for the child or youth to receive a family history and then have a separate session for the child/youth. Often parents will come in for the first session and when the child/youth is comfortable a parent can leave the session space. If a youth is not wanting their parent/caregiver to be involved and to begin by themselves, this can also be supported. Regular parent or caregiver sessions are often supportive to the process and family system as a whole.
I often works with parents and caregivers through adult counselling and parent sessions. Parents and caregivers of children and youth of all ages can reach out to me for parenting support.
Benefits to Youth and Youth-Parent Counselling
If your youth is experiencing mental health challenging responses, youth counselling can be supportive. If you are struggling with communication in your family, youth-parent counselling could be helpful as well.
Benefits of Counselling for Parents and Teens:
Improves communication: Helps bridge communication gaps between parents and teens, fostering open dialogue and understanding.
Resolves conflicts: Provides a neutral space to address ongoing conflicts and work towards solutions that respect both parties' perspectives.
Strengthens emotional bonds: Enhances the emotional connection between parents and youth, fostering trust and mutual support.
Encourages healthy coping mechanisms: Equips both parents and adolescents with tools to manage stress, emotions, and challenges in healthier ways.
Addresses behavioural issues: Helps identify and manage problematic behaviours by exploring underlying emotional reasons.
Supports transitions: Offers guidance during life changes such as adolescence, moving schools, or changes in family dynamics.
Reduces family stress: Helps reduce tension and stress within the family, creating a more harmonious home environment.
Encourages personal growth: Fosters individual growth for both the youth and parents through self-awareness and emotional resilience.
Through youth and youth-parent counselling, unique strengths in the youth and family are acknowledged to help enhance resilience while difficulties and challenging experiences are explored to support coping mechanisms.
Youth are supported in learning how to navigate mental health, school, peer, or social challenges arising.
Families are supported to learn how to communicate more effectively, resolve conflicts, and navigate mental health responses. Families experience a growth in their bonds building stronger relationships based in a foundation of secure and loving attachment.
My Approach to Family Therapy for Teens
As a Registered Clinical Counsellor (RCC) with extensive experience in youth and family therapy, I specialize in helping families navigate the complexities of parent-teen relationships and the mental health responses of youth. I have extensive experience supporting youth and families through attachment-based lenses examining the attachment needs behind behaviours, as well as strengths of the youth and family. I am well-versed in supporting those who have experienced incredible adversities or mental health concerns from attachment-based, trauma-informed, and developmental lenses.
I meet parents and caregivers where they are at in compassionate and collaborative support and understanding. As parents and caregivers have the most impact on children and adolescents, therapy centered around parenting support often has a significant impact on all parts of a family system.
I have clinical experience supporting children through attachment-based and expressive art and play therapy. An extensive understanding of the developmental and behavioural impacts on children of traumatic experiences and mental health challenges is applicable in working with youth.
I am also well-versed in neurodiversity-affirming care, which is critical for youth experiencing brain differences that impact their functioning and way of being in the world. Strengths-based support that highlights unique strengths, as well as possible opportunities and accommodations, is essential.
My approach is based in trauma-informed care, attachment, and family systems. I use a number of evidence-based approaches, such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy to address the unique needs of both parents and teens, ensuring that everyone feels heard and supported.
I have advanced training in expressive arts and play therapy, as well as trauma therapy, for children, youth, and families with art and play therapy supplies, as well as a sand tray in my office. I am trained in Synergetic Play Therapy (SPT), which is a research-informed attachment and interpersonal neurobiology play therapy model to support children, youth, and families. Understanding the importance of nervous system regulation with youth, as well as attachment needs behind challenging behaviours, can be supportive to parenting processes.
I am also trained in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy having experience supporting children and youth who have experienced trauma with this approach to help process negative and painful experiences.
These counselling approaches with youth help explore and understand challenges surrounding emotional regulation, thought patterns, and harmful behaviours. These approaches also can be particularly helpful when considering responses of anxiety, panic, phobias, depression, or self-harm.
Safety, stabilization, and coping for the youth and parents/caregivers is of primary importance. The family system understanding the impact of trauma and how this can show up in the behaviour of children or youth is also critical.
How to Begin Counselling for Teens and Parents Online or in Squamish
If you would like more information, please free to contact me to schedule a consultation and start your journey toward a healthier family dynamic or for support for your youth.
I offer in-person sessions in Squamish, as well as or online counselling, making it easy to find a time that works for your youth and family.
