Some of our therapists have taken additional training to work with teenagers and their families. The teen will have a combination of sessions alone and sessions with parents. When recommended, the whole family can be part of the process. A teenager may show signs of anxiety or depression, low self esteem, or other personal issues that are causing suffering. Teens may be doing destructive or unacceptable behaviors within the family or in society, having problems with peers or difficulties in school. The teen may be adjusting to changes in family circumstances due to a death, or to divorce or separation of parents. Adolescence is a transitional time of life, and so emotional issues that may have been seeming to rest quietly in the background can come to the surface. He or she may have experienced trauma of some kind, and there is an unconscious need that the consequent issues be given attention and some healing resolution.

We have some modalities that are helpful adjuncts to talk therapy in work with teens. The research in Interpersonal Neurobiology is affirming the efficacy and power of these approaches in combination with talk therapy.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

EMDR (optional) offers a unique approach to working with trauma, performance anxiety, and a wide range of issues in individual therapy. Some therapists have additional training in this modality.

Sandtray/Sandplay Therapy (Optional)

Through the use of sandtrays and a wide range of miniatures, the therapist invites the client to create an environment. People who like this method find it to be unique, enjoyable, and deeply meaningful. It has been compared to dream work in that the mind reaches into a similar place in the psyche to create a picture in the sand with the miniatures. Parents & teens are surprised at how much better they are able to communicate with these materials. It is experiential and hard to describe here. As with Play Therapy, sandtray work engages the right brain and the deep levels of the body-mind consciousness. The founder of Sandtray, Dora Kalff, studied with Carl Jung.