Family Counseling

Struggling with your teen?

You never expected parenting to be this hard. You wish you could go back to the days when your child just wanted to play and crawl up in your lap to snuggle. Now you have a teen that seems to hate you and doesn’t want anything to do with you. Yet they still expect you to buy them whatever they want.

Teenagers are not cheap and they expect you to bend over backwards to make sure they are happy. In order to be happy they need you to make sure that happens. If you ask them to do the smallest task around the house you are met with complaints. Your teenager does not contribute to the house for various reasons. They are busy with school, sports, and friends. They seem to be gone all the time and only want to talk to you when they want something from you.
You just want things to slow down and calm down. You miss them and want to spend some quality time with them. You want to make happy memories now with them, but you seem to fight all the time. Even on family vacations you get so much push back which leads to you feeling disrespected.
Your teen has asked you to back off and give them space. They want you to trust them and respect their autonomy. You’ve tried it their way which only leads to you getting a phone call from them asking you to take care of their forgetfulness. You feel like you can’t trust them to follow through with their part and they know you feel that way. They blame you for all of it. They don’t take responsibility for their part in the problem. Instead of getting a thank you from your teen, you get more complaining and blaming.

• You’re tired of fighting with your teen
• You are looking for peace
• You’re struggling to find a resolution
• At the end of the day- your house your rules
• Your way isn’t working
• You’re afraid to loose your teen forever
• You have sleepless nights worrying

Not only are you fighting with your kid, but now you are arguing with your spouse about how to handle the situation. You feel you can’t win. Now your kid is causing a wedge in your marriage. You are ready to just give up, but you can’t. You deserve to be respected for all you do in your family. A little appreciation would go a long way for you to be able to handle the teen typical responses. You are either arguing with your teen or arguing with your spouse. You are beyond tired. You are spent mentally and emotionally. You are at a point you are ready to leave. If nothing changes then you may leave and let your spouse deal with the chaos. You may check out and just choose to not care anymore since that would bring some sort of pseudo peace.

If nothing changes then you can continue to suffer alone or you can reach out and get help. The truth is you don’t have to suffer through this alone. You don’t have to suffer, period. Sometimes the solution is right there, but we can’t see it for whatever reason. If you reach out I know I can help you find a way out of the chaos. You can have a better relationship with your teen. You can have peace in your home.

I have worked with teens and young adults for over 7 years. I have helped families who teens struggle with ADHD, anxiety, depression, and addiction. You don’t have to do this alone. I can help. Disconnection makes us sick, but connection heals us. If you are also struggling with excess worry, stress, and anxiety caused by your relationships with your teen and spouse. It’s time to get help.

What to Expect

First, I will work with your family to understand more about the current problems you are struggling with. Once we decide what to work on I will listen to each person’s perspective of the problem. During this phase I want to make sure everyone feels heard and understood. Due to the nature of family counsleing, we will mostly likely need more time. Be prepared for 90 min to 2 hour sessions.
Next, we will begin to work to create healthy boundaries in the relationships. This is where we learn to operate together as a team. Depending on the family I will do individual sessions with either the parents or the teen. The ultimate goal is to have a safe place in family counseling to unload all the stress your relationships are experiencing to get to a place of connection and peace.

How many sessions will we have to do?

Family counseling can last 2 sessions or over a year. Family counseling length depends on family isssues that need to be solved and how willing each person is to change. If you have struggled for years in a disconnected family situations then it will most likely take time. If you are mostly connected, but can’t seem to get past a challenge then you may only need a few sessions.

Who do you typically see for family counseling?

• I see individuals, couples, families with teenagers, and teenagers individually. If you are struggling in your relationships then I can help. I specialize in helping couples and families connect.
• I have helped husbands do individual counsleing to help with thier marriage.
• I have helped men who struggle with anger issues in individual counsleing to help them in thier marriage.
• I have helped couples with communication.
• I have helped parents whose child was struggling with mental health issues.
• I have help families work through parent child relationships.