Therapy for Teens and Tweens

Helping teens experience joy and healing

Being a teenager is hard. And we know  being a parent of a teenager is hard too. As children develop into tweens and teens, they begin to face complex challenges such as bullying, depression, anxiety, academic stressors, identity concerns, or social isolation. It can seem like the child you once knew and connected so well with is gone. Often teenagers begin to wield their new independence, and share less about these complex challenges with their family. This can leave parents confused and worried, especially if their tween, or teen used to share everything with them. When teens don’t have the coping skills, and social support necessary to face these challenges, they may use maladaptive coping strategies. Often, this is portrayed as teens misusing substances like vape pens, or self-harming. However, it can also include so much more than that, such as withdrawing socially, avoiding new experiences, or becoming overly perfectionistic. 


Therapy provides teenagers with a confidential space and a trained professional ready to support them in exploring the challenges they are facing. Regardless of the presenting concern, therapy offers tweens and teens an opportunity to have a space that is just theirs to process and share their concerns. In therapy they can  learn new strategies to navigate the current challenges they face. These strategies also build resilience for the challenges that they will face in young adulthood and beyond.  

Your teeanger might be:

  • pushing limits by staying out later, or avoiding responsibilities in school, or at home. 

  • easily aggravated and get an attitude with you 

  • overly perfectionistic, afraid to make a mistake in school, or in their extracurriculars.

  • struggling with the transition from middle school to high school. 

  • turning to substances, negative peer influences, or other harmful behaviors to cope with their underlying depression or anxiety

  • lonely and isolated because they aren’t able to connect with friends as easily anymore

As a parent you might be: 

  • confused about how to best respond and connect to your tween/teen 

  • uncertain about if your teenager’s behavior is “normal”

  • ashamed because it seems like all of the other parents haven’t struggled with their teens as much as you have

  • frustrated because it seems like your teenager isn’t thinking about the consequences of their actions

At Bud to Bloom Play Therapy we help by:

using a combination of talk therapy and play to help teenagers make sense of the challenges they are facing

teaching and practicing coping strategies to manage new stressors

coaching parents about how to understand their teenager’s behavior and how to respond to it

fostering connection and trust between parents and children

using creative expression to process emotions and promote self-discovery

teaching and practicing social skills to allow for healthy, long-term relationship development.