At Thought Partners, we offer in-person therapy for children and teens in Marin County. We understand that virtual therapy for this age group may be too challenging and need a different approach.

How Teen Therapy Can Provide Your Teen With Support

Adolescence is a time of extraordinary change, transformation, and exploration. With growth can also come challenges, strife, angst, and existential quandary. Each child and teen is unique in their own development and journey to adulthood. This requires a personalized approach to therapy.

Our team provides individualized, compassionate care to help our child and teen clients. Our team helps teens harness sources of internal strength and resilience to navigate through this complex stage of life. In therapy, we offer practical, evidence-based strategies to help our teen clients. This is to help them better handle difficult emotions and improve coping. During this process, we involve parents as much as possible. We communicate through parent check-ins, parent coaching sessions, and family sessions, as needed.

Our Therapeutic Approaches for Teen Therapy Include:

1. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
2. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
3. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
4. Strengths-based and Resiliency-based therapy
5. Solution-Focused Therapy
6. In-person individual therapy and group therapy

At Thought Partners, we commonly treat the following issues in teen therapy:

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

There can be many symptoms of ADHD in children and teens. These symptoms include sensitivity to rejection, impulsivity and poor decision-making, and difficulty completing tasks. Teens may also be forgetful, have poor concentration, have intense emotions, interpersonal challenges, and risky behavior. Often, symptoms intensify during puberty, necessitating the right support.

Our team uses evidence-based interventions to teach adolescents with ADHD different sets of skills. These skills include emotional regulation skills, interpersonal effectiveness, mindfulness, and executive functioning skills. We use a strengths-based approach to help our children and teens with ADHD. This helps teens channel their inherent strengths. This approach helps teens build and maintain their self-esteem and self-efficacy while creating a values-driven life.

Take this test to see if your child or adolescent may have ADHD:

ADHD Test for Adolescents

Did you know that symptoms of ADHD present differently in girls than boys? Take this quiz to see if your adolescent girl may be struggling with ADHD:

ADHD Test for Girls

Depression

Teen depression goes beyond moodiness. When children and teens begin withdrawing from life, experience problems at school, display increased irritability and negative behavior, and show changes in their sleep and eating patterns, depression may be the cause. Anxiety is often present in those with depression too, which requires a comprehensive approach to treatment. As a parent, you may worry if your teen’s grades are dropping, and conversations with your teen become challenging. Or maybe, your teen is no longer finding pleasure in enjoyable activities.

Depression in teens may look different in your child versus another child. Paying attention to the signs of depression in teens is important to ensure they get the proper support. We help your teen clarify what matters most (e.g. values). This includes co-creating a roadmap of actionable steps to move towards the life they want, develop self-compassion, learn coping skills, and increase awareness and understanding of how their mind works.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Oftentimes, behaviors of over-control and perfectionism begin to impact a child or teen’s life. Intrusive thoughts and compulsive behavior lead to a vicious cycle of increased anxiety/stress and a sense of feeling stuck. We use evidence-based practices to treat symptoms of OCD. This is to help your child live an engaged, flexible, and balanced life.

Do you worry if your child has OCD? Take this OCD test to find out:

OCD Test for Adolescents

Anxiety

Symptoms of anxiety often cause teens to feel stuck inside their minds. This may prevent them from experiencing the present moment. We work with teens dealing with social anxiety, general stress, panic attacks, school stress, and refusal. We also work with teens dealing with body image issues, and overthinking (e.g. rumination and worry).

Our ACT and CBT-based approaches help adolescents learn about the cycle of avoidance with anxiety, and learn critical coping skills for reducing the impact of anxiety on their life. We also help teens learn to practice techniques for shifting from living in their minds to stepping actively into their lives.

Gender and Sexual Identity Exploration

We work with teens exploring gender identities, such as non-binary teens, and teens exploring their sexuality. We are LGBTQ+ allied and welcome teens of all gender identities, expressions, and sexual orientations into our practice. Research shows that gender-nonconforming teens face a higher risk of mental distress. Providing your teen with therapy gives your teen access to critical support and a safe place to explore and process.

Emotional Dysregulation

Hormonal changes in adolescence can impact your child’s ability to regulate emotions. These emotions might appear as explosive outbursts, self-harming behaviors, conflicts in relationships, and risky behaviors. Using DBT-based interventions and mindfulness, our team helps your adolescent obtain the skills needed to cope. These skills help during emotional storms, increase the effectiveness in their lives, improve relationships, and experience more peace.

Begin Teen Therapy in Marin County, CA

At Thought Partners, our team understands being a teen can be difficult. You're navigating new experiences and challenges every day. You might be facing anxiety in these changes or experiencing depression with the challenges affecting you. No matter the struggle our team is here with in-person teen therapy. If you’re interested in starting teen therapy follow these three simple steps:

1. Contact Us to schedule an appointment
2. Meet one of  Our Teen Therapists
3. Begin to face the challenges of being a teen