5 Reasons for seeking help for your kid immediately upon their request! By Guest Blogger Laura Goldstein, LCMFT Family Therapist and Owner of Montgomery County Counseling Center Some children find their way to therapy because their parents seek it for them. Less often, it’s because they have asked for it themselves! And when they do ask, it’s a pretty special moment! Kids put themselves in a super vulnerable position to ask for help. They risk being seen as weak. They risk feeling embarrassed, shameful, or guilty for struggling. They risk offending their parents or making their parents feel badly they can’t be the ones to help. So if your child has overcome ALL…
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Your Teen is Not Exaggerating: Social Distancing is Their Hell
Pretty much everyone’s world has been rocked by COVID-19. For teenagers, the effects of social isolation are not just annoying, they are dangerous. A new study by Nationwide Children’s found that pediatric emergency department visits for mental health disorders have increased by 60% and visits for deliberate self-harm have increased by 329%. Of all the age categories, teenagers 15-17-years old showed the biggest increase (68%). In this blog we will explore possible reasons behind the increase, and how parents can help. Teenagers are Wired for Social Interaction It is widely known that one of the main goals of adolescents is independence. Teens start to slowly separate from their families and…
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Online Friendships: A Gen Z Norm Parents Struggle to Understand
My child is making friends online. Parents around the world are both terrified and bewildered by their child’s socialization habits on the internet. Teens are using headsets to play games with people halfway across the nation, constantly on FaceTime with friends, and DMing with people they’ve never met on Instagram. In our office, parents often come with one (or both) of the following concerns: “Isn’t it weird that my child is talking to people they’ve never met? They can’t possibly think they are actually friends?” “OMG my child is going to get lured by a sex trafficker …and kidnapped… and die” While both concerns are valid, they are also indicative…
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Teens Share Why They Don’t Talk: We Share What To Do About It
It’s no secret that teenagers are not always forthcoming with information. It’s nothing to take personally. In fact, it’s developmentally appropriate in most cases. However, teens are often reporting things in the therapy room that they wish their parents knew, yet they hesitate to share with them. While we he work with teens daily, we didn’t want to make assumptions of why this is. Instead, we headed to Instagram. We used the social media platform asked teens to write to us about why they don’t talk to or share things with their parents. Below are the top three reasons voiced by teens and our advice to parents to combat them. 1.…
