A safe, professional space to explore your world and make meaning of it.
You are never too old or too young to start making positive changes to your life
Due to the ongoing COVID -19 Situation, I am following HSE guidelines. Normally, I would see whole families and both parents and adolescents but because of social distancing I can’t facilitate more than one parent and one adolescent. I will discuss this before our first appointment.
Adolescents
Being an adolescent is not an easy task. It's potentially one of the most difficult phase's of our lives. Their bodies change, full of raging hormones and chemicals. Suddenly their once cherished parents and families become uncool, it's embarrassing to be spotted in public with them. They sometimes start to question everything their parents have told them about themselves and the world.
Parents and families become confused about what is happening to their once lovely little child. Adolescents can feel overwhelmed with all of the changes. This can be a very confusing time for adolescents and their families. This is a period of constant change, schools, friends, physical and emotional changes- it’s difficult.
The way I work is, I try to support the parents and the adolescent to adapt to these perfectly natural developmental stages. In the first and initial session, I will ask (where possible) for both parents/ guardians to attend with their adolescent.
Often fathers don't feel important or that it's not important to attend with their children but it is important. Fathers sometimes feel powerless, redundant but they are very important. Attachment theory focuses on the importance of mothers but I like to think that both parents are equally important and are collaborators in raising their children.
Once we meet initially, then we will look at how to proceed, sometimes it's necessary for the parents to come again on a one to one basis and sometimes it's not. I like to work collaboratively with both adolescent and parent and try to facilitate negotiating the boundaries. Often, this is where a lot of problems arise, parents don't give their children the freedom to grow and explore or children get too much freedom and struggle with boundaries. Some adolescents don't respect their parents boundaries, they will try to push and break them and in these instances power struggles usually ensue. The once harmonious house they all occupied is now filled with arguments and conflicts. Parents and adolescents rarely agree on what the issues and reasons are and see the world through different lenses. This is why I like to get the full picture by meeting both parents and adolescent.
Sometimes the adolescents are not worried about themselves- they feel they are just fine andthe problems the adolescent faces are directly related to their family. Often parents have a lot of anxiety about their adolescent, is their behaviour normal, why are they spending so much time alone in their bedroom? It can be reassuring for both adolescent and parent to know that their behaviour is perfectly normal for their developmental stage.
Do you worry about your adolescent?If so I would be happy to meet with you to discuss your worries and fears. Are you an adolescent who is worried about themselves? If so, I would be happy to talk to you and your parents. Legally, all under 18’s must have parental permission to attend therapy.
Giving a voice to all of our parts, integrating what we have lost or disowned.
"There are no problems, only tasks and opportunities" Roberto Assagioli
" A child has difficulty feeling a sense of self without boundaries & limits. He will become anxious if they are not present and often act out to find them." Violet Oaklander
