Therapy for Teens in Texas
You've noticed something is different.
Maybe they've gone quiet. Maybe the fuse got a lot shorter. Maybe school stopped mattering, or a friendship ended. Maybe you can't point to one thing, but you can just tell.
You don't have to be certain it's serious before you ask for support.
Looking for help isn't an admission that you did something wrong.
Most parents arrive a little braced, expecting to be assessed. That's not what this is.
Adolescence is genuinely hard, and it's difficult in ways that don't track neatly with how a kid was raised. Plenty of thoughtful, involved parents end up here. Bringing your teen to counseling is not evidence of a failure. It's usually evidence that you were paying attention.
Most parents can't tell, and that's reasonable.
Some withdrawal, moodiness, and pulling away from family is developmentally normal. Teenagers are supposed to separate from their parents. That's the job.
What's worth a closer look is when something persists, spreads, or costs them things they used to care about. Sleep changes that don't correct. Dropping activities or friendships they were invested in. Grades falling off a cliff rather than sliding. Anxiety that keeps them from doing ordinary things. A shift in how they talk about themselves.
If you're unsure which one you're looking at, that's a good enough reason to have a conversation. Sorting that out is part of what a first meeting is for.
Is this normal, or is it something more?
What you'll know, and what stays private.
Your teen needs privacy. You need to know how they're doing. Both are possible.
This is the question most parents want answered and most teens are quietly worried about, so I address it directly with everyone at the start.
Teenagers won't open up if they think their sessions are being reported home in detail. So the content of what they tell me generally stays between us. What you can expect from me is the bigger picture: how things are going, what we're working on, what would help at home, and whether I think something needs more attention.
There are limits, and I'm clear about those with your teen from the first session. If I believe they're at risk of harm, or someone is hurting them, you'll hear from me. That isn't a loophole in the arrangement. It's part of it, and teens generally respect being told the rules honestly rather than discovering them later.
If your teen doesn't want to go.
Reluctance is normal and usually workable.
Very few teenagers ask for counseling. A fair number arrive with their arms crossed, having agreed to one session to end the conversation at home.
That's a workable starting point. I don't need them to be enthusiastic, just willing to give it a try. I need them to be in the room and to find out that this isn't what they were expecting. First sessions are low-pressure on purpose. They don't have to talk about the hard thing on day one, and knowing that takes most of the pressure off.
It also helps if the framing at home is honest: this is a place to talk, not a consequence, and not a fix for something they've done wrong.
If your teen isn’t ready to come in, that doesn’t mean we can’t get started. I offer consultations with parents to help you better understand what may be happening for your teen and explore ways to reconnect. Sometimes, the most meaningful work begins by helping a parent find a different way to reach a child who has closed the door.
What we work on.
It depends on the teen, but often:
Anxiety, low mood, or stress that has stopped lifting on its own
Friendships, social pressure, and the version of themselves they perform online
Identity, and figuring out who they are apart from what's expected of them
Confidence and how they talk to themselves
Conflict at home, and learning to say what they need without it becoming a fight
School pressure, performance, and fear of falling short
A loss, a divorce, a move, or a change they haven't fully absorbed
Emotions that arrive faster and bigger than they know what to do with
The aim isn't to make your teenager more agreeable. It's to help them understand themselves, which usually improves things at home as a side effect.
How we'd start.
MY APPROACHI see teens 14 and up across Dallas-Fort Worth in person, and virtually throughout Texas. We usually start with a conversation between the two of us before your teen comes in, so I understand what you're seeing and you can decide whether I'm the right fit.
NO PRESSURE. JUST A CONVERSATION.
Start with a conversation about what you're seeing.
You don't need to have it figured out, and you don't need to be sure it's bad enough. Tell me what you've noticed and we'll go from there.
Support for you, too.
Parents often spend a long time holding things together for everyone else before they consider that they might need somewhere to put it down.
Working through something of your own?
