How Family Therapy Can Help Your Teen
Deciding the best therapy option for your teenager can be challenging. Should you seek individual therapy for them or involve the whole family in family therapy? While both have unique benefits, family therapy offers opportunities for healing and growth that extend beyond the individual and strengthen the entire family system.
Read more: How Family Therapy Can Help Your TeenHow Family Therapy Supports Your Teen’s Emotional Growth
If your teen struggles to express themselves or seems disconnected, teen family therapy can provide a bridge to understanding and connection. When you are present with your teen in therapy, it can enable them to safely explore emotions that they may have been directing toward you in the home. Your therapist can assist with conflict and teaching resolution skills while partnering with you to validate your teenager’s experiences and emotions.
This is significantly impactful since your teen learns to express their pain rather than the protective emotion of anger they have displayed. This helps to break the repetitive cycle of conflict.1 The ability to understand your teen’s anger and then work together to overcome the habitual anger outbursts or silent treatment develops healthier patterns of communication. When both you and your teen can respond to the real emotion of pain, it lowers defenses and supports additional opportunities for connection.
How Does Online Family Counseling Help Teens?
- By providing a safe space to explore emotions.
- Through teaching conflict resolution skills.
- Fostering emotional intelligence and self-awareness.
The ability to identify emotions under the surface is one valuable tool that teen family therapy could offer you to help your relationship with your teen, benefitting both you and your teen. When they can identify and articulate the emotions under the surface, it assists them in developing their self-awareness2. They will begin to learn what it means to be emotionally intelligent and understand themselves better.
Emotional intelligence (EI) benefits your teen’s development of autonomy and competence as they face various challenges in early adulthood3. Your teen is learning to regulate their emotions at this age, which is an increasingly beneficial skill as they age. High EI benefits your teen as they can actively and effectively process emotions. EI also helps them develop a healthy and happier personality since it is connected to traits that produce a well-developed teen. EI is a protective factor for your teen’s development, which is why therapy for teenagers is so valuable.
What are Emotionally Intelligent Traits Developed in Therapy for Teenagers?
- Self-awareness
- Self-motivation
- Self-esteem
- Happiness
- Empathy
- Optimism
- Interpersonal skills4
Your teen will experience numerous challenges both inside and outside of themselves during puberty, and therapy for teenagers assists them in navigating and processing these challenges.
Common Struggles Your Teen Might Be Facing
- Anxiety and panic attacks
- Depression
- Social media pressures
- Eating disorders
- Academic stress
- Suicidal ideations
- Pornography addiction
- Self-harm, cutting, and acting out behaviors
Sometimes, the reassurance of having a therapist who can name and normalize these new experiences is sufficient in supporting and calming your teen. For other teens, having a therapist to work through eating disorders, pornography use, or risky and/or suicidal behavior is essential for your teen as they navigate this vital time in their lives. Beyond the emotional tools and self-awareness your teen develops, teen family therapy in an online format offers additional benefits that make it an accessible, effective option for your family.
See our Teen Therapy page for more information about the work Therapevo online counselors do with teenagers.
Benefits of Online Teen Family Therapy
- Teens learn to understand their own emotions and communicate them with others.
- They learn healthy ways to navigate adolescence with family support.
- Conflict resolution is taught and practiced in sessions.
Strengthening Family Connections Through Therapy
Navigating the teen years is hard—for both teens and parents. Family therapy offers a way to heal together. Seeing your teen struggling is difficult, especially when you begin to recognize that their behavior is affecting the rest of the family. If one of your goals in looking for therapy is to improve your family system, online family counseling is beneficial for improving family functioning5.
When your teen stays connected with your family, even as they begin to develop an individual sense of self, that connection is protective and enhances their growth6. Working with a therapist assists your teen as they navigate healthy attachments between family members throughout their development. Your teen can then increase their independence while maintaining their connection with their family.
How Does Teen Family Therapy Help Your Family?
- Healing all together.
- Improving family functioning.
- Increasing your teen’s independence and family closeness at the same time.
For some teens, a combination of individual and family therapy can be particularly effective. While individual therapy helps them process personal struggles, family therapy strengthens the overall family dynamic. When your teen can approach their struggles individually with their therapist, they have space to learn more about themselves. Your teen’s learning is then benefitted through online family counseling as the whole family comes together to adjust their understanding of the issues at hand.
A key advantage of including the family in therapy is improving your family’s functioning. Your therapist will provide the support needed to navigate topics like conflict, mental health, physical health, and education within the context of the family7. This helps unite the family as everyone learns how to navigate the changes your teen faces. In this sense, family therapy helps your teen address a variety of mental health and behavioral issues while feeling the support of your family both in therapy and in the routine of everyday life. Your family will experience improved functioning as a whole while your teen learns to be independent but still connected. Family therapy in an online format provides unique advantages, making it a convenient and effective option for your family.
Benefits of Family Therapy for Your Family
- As the teen begins to implement healthy changes, the family system has support as it adapts to those changes.
- Family functioning becomes less conflictual.
- The family’s involvement is part of the healing process for the teen.
Curious how family therapy can support your teen and your family?
References
- Lifshitz et al., “Emotional Processing in Attachment-Based Family Therapy for Suicidal Adolescents.” ↩︎
- Henderson et al., “Comparing Family Functioning in Usual Care Among Adolescents Treated for Behavior Problems.” ↩︎
- Henderson et al. ↩︎
- Collado-Soler et al., “Emotional Intelligence and Resilience Outcomes in Adolescent Period, Is Knowledge Really Strength?” ↩︎
- Henderson et al., “Comparing Family Functioning in Usual Care Among Adolescents Treated for Behavior Problems.”
↩︎ - Abrams, “Coming Together to Move Apart.” ↩︎
- Henderson et al., “Comparing Family Functioning in Usual Care Among Adolescents Treated for Behavior Problems.” ↩︎
