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Oak Tree Therapy

Teens & Young Adults

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Teens & Young Adults

Teenagers and young adults deal with heavy issues, as they transition out of childhood and into the cusp of adulthood, dealing with families, friendships, relationships, workplaces, school stressors, and future planning, among others. That's a lot to handle for anyone. Support for and understanding of their situations is vitally important. It can be a stressful time for parents and caregivers as well. Therapy for teens and young adults seeks to offer a secure environment in which they and their therapist can learn to navigate multiple challenges.

Our Approach

If you’re a teenager or young adult, considering whether therapy is right for you or not, you should know that at Oak Tree Therapy we’re all pretty laid back. We realize serious things are obviously going to come up in counseling, but if you don’t want “all serious, all the time,” that’s cool too. Therapy looks different for everyone, because we’re all unique and have different things we need and want. It’s important to us that you feel like you’re getting what you need here. So, your therapist will check in with you every now and then. But, you’re just as welcome to let your therapist know what you need at any point.

Common reasons you (as a teenager or young adult) may be seeking therapy:

  • Worrying about things that may not make sense
  • The need for perfection is disrupting your life
  • Crying or tearing up without much of a reason
  • Not seeing friends or family as often as you used to
  • Feeling like your relationships or choices are unhealthy
  • Generally feeling unhappy about yourself
  • Cutting or hurting yourself
  • Drug or alcohol use
  • Constant worry about what others think of you
  • Worrying about what the rest of your life may look like
  • Trouble adjusting to independence
  • Considering just quitting your goals

What will therapy look like?

That’s really up to you. We don’t believe in pressuring teens to talk about certain issues. What you bring into the therapy room that day is yours to talk about, or not. We believe in letting you make the choices and helping you to make the best one for you. In our experience as therapists, we’ve recognized that figuring out where problems started (root causes) and sorting through those things have the most long-lasting benefits.

There may have been something else that was scary, or dangerous, or just bad that happened to you lately. In counseling, you’ve got the space to talk about those things, and we’ll address them together.

In any case, we can definitely look at calming and coping skills so you can have quicker relief. Or, you may have already been given a toolbox full of coping techniques to use. That’s cool, but, we feel like you deserve lasting change. We don’t think you should necessarily have to use a different coping skill every time you’re struggling.

Finally, it helps to just get things out. Unfortunately, in a lot of cases, society has given us the message that we’re not supposed to talk about feelings or our beliefs. All that uncomfortable stuff is okay to talk about here. When we hold it all in, push it down, carry around the weight of it, it generally doesn’t go well. Ultimately, it will eventually come out, but usually not in a way that’s going to have a great ending. Stress is heavy stuff. So, in counseling, We will help you get that stuff out in a way that’s going to work for you and help you feel better.

Topics to Discuss in Therapy

Here’s a quick list of some of the issues or feelings that we can discuss in our sessions:

  • Anger – Some things are unfair and don’t turn out the way that you hoped or expected.
  • Happiness – Alternately, some things go well and to plan. How can you create more of these moments?
  • Sadness – Being a teen isn’t always easy and often comes with sad moments. Let’s talk them through and find the best way for you to express this.
  • Hurt – Friends aren’t always as kind as they could be and adults don’t always understand you, leading to hurt and at times, a lot of pressure.
  • Hopelessness – Life can get lonely and you can feel loneliness, even when you’re surrounded by people. We can help.
  • Fear – Living with anxiety and fear can impact so many areas of your life – your friendships, relationships with adults, school work and sports.
You and the Therapy Room

We want you to feel comfortable just being yourself. We’ll provide you with a space where you can feel safe and welcome doing that.

Every session in Oak Tree’s therapy room can look different. Sometimes we can sit and drink coffee, tea, or water together, while we chat and connect. We can share some laughs, or discuss tougher moments from your week. Some days you may not feel like talking at all and that’s okay too. You can try your hand at art, or use the sand tray instead, to express yourself and explore what’s going on inside of you. As therapists, we want to meet you where you’re at in your day and support you from there. We are really good at that!