Just sharing a reflection that I had regarding how we work with teenagers and especially the angsty ones!
Ever so often, I’ve heard how parents complain about how helpless they feel about the teenager that they have at home. No matter what they try, nothing seems to work and things often escalate out of hand even by the slightest thing. And then when we probe further about what have they done to try to resolve the situation, they confess that nothing was done because the teenager is not even agreeable to go receive any help.
Thus, this is where I would encourage parents to lower their expectations by first working towards getting that teen to the table. By that, I mean how parents can explore whatever possible ways of getting the teen to be even open to talk about things together. At this stage, parents shouldn’t be focusing on trying to get them to change and comply with whatever. But parents have to realize that the faster they can get the teenager to be open, the higher chance they have at working towards a positive outcome together.
And if we are able to arrive at this position, it would be highly advantageous for parents to capitalize on that moment to leverage on it as much as possible to open up a conversation. However, if parents are not confident to arrive at a favourable outcome on their own, it would be better to have a trained professional to facilitate this conversation. But one big obstacle that parents may face is that it is almost close to impossible to get the teenager to step out of the house and come along with them to the therapist/counselor office.
So one possible option to explore is where we invite the trained professional to come in and work with the family in the privacy of their home. Therefore, if you would like to explore this arrangement, please feel free to drop me an email where we can discuss it further.
All the best to your parenting journey and take care!
