ADOLESCENTS

Adolescence is an extremely sensitive period in life. It is one in which we are in great need of support and mentoring, and a grown up to help us in our path of identity formation and self definition. At the same time, the developmental tasks of this age and the need to grow into separation, often push us away from our parents and the people closest to us. This is why it often seems impossible to reach out to teenagers, and to discover their experience.

The framework of psychotherapy may allow the adolescent a place to discover himself, despite this conflict, and in fact, serve as a place to think it through. Due to the framework being limited in time, confined and somewhat distant from life-out-there, it can sometimes enter where the parents cannot. Teens can be related to through their fields of interest, be it music, video games, literature, social networks or anything else, in order to meet them where they are. From my experience, this active approach gets the initial cooperation that is sometimes more difficult.

It is important to point out that teenagers deal with a lot of stress, related to their social image, to the need to be successful in school, to sexual issues etc. They may adopt various reactions to this stress, on a wide range from being carried away by others, to isolating themselves from the world. In general, like children, they still tend to “act-out” their pain rather than communicate it in words. Teens that are expats, and “in between countries” may especially experience a sense of disconnectedness, strangeness, and difficulty in adaptation, as the expat experience adds challenges to this already complex period.

Eventually, one purpose of therapy is to learn how to recognize and deal with some of the stressful situations and feelings encountered for the first times in this age. It is also to help build reflective skills, and to guide through this process of self revelation. And finally, it is to build a bridge back to the relationship with the parents.