Christian Counseling for Teens: How and When it Can Help

Growing up has many joys, but many growing pains too. As one moves from being a young child toward adulthood, the intervening teen years can be daunting to navigate and make sense of. As young people go through life and come into their own, they may wrestle with a variety of issues such as sex and sexuality, identity, self-esteem, peer pressure, and bullying. For parents and teens, this can be a bewildering time of life.

Some kids pass through the adolescent years without incident. For others, this stage of life shifts the very ground beneath them, and they change in ways that can confuse them and their parents.

This is a time when your children are dealing with deep questions and issues that will impact their future and shape how they view themselves and interact with the world around them. Parenting your child through these issues can be challenging and overwhelming, especially if it feels like you’re losing your connection with your teen.

For many parents, it can be hard to know the difference between normal teenage angst and deeper problems that may require professional intervention and help. This article will try to help you to make sense of some of these challenges and give pointers for when to seek professional help, such as Christian counseling for teens in Pasadena.

When to find help for your teen

It is important to note that each child is different – what is normal, baseline behavior for each child will be different based on a variety of factors such as personality and life experiences up to that point. Most parents can pick up when their child is acting differently.

What can be more difficult and complicated is being able to tell if your teen is simply behaving like a normal teenager going through changes or having serious problems. How do you know that it’s time to pursue Christian counseling for teens?

For example, many teens will go through developmental depression in adolescence as they come to terms with their loss of innocence and childhood identity. That kind of emotional upheaval is normal as they forge a sense of their own identity amidst the uncertainties of life.

This developmental depression is different from atypical adolescent depression that creates more serious levels of emotional distress which is overwhelming and leads to mood swings, destructive preoccupations, and negativity. This atypical depression may have features such as:

• Social isolation
• Being predominantly depressed or irritated
• Prolonged feelings of hopelessness
• Severe moods swings
• Loss of interest in activities they once enjoyed
• Persistent fatigue and insomnia

There are several avenues to look at for help, including crisis hotlines, parenting classes, books, blogs, and support groups.

Additionally, if you have noticed changes in their behavior and are concerned, it may be worthwhile speaking to a therapist to see if your concerns are well-founded or not. The therapist can lay your fears to rest or give you some indication if you need to take extra steps towards treatment.

Some signs that you should pursue Christian counseling for teens are when they:

• Take part in illegal activity
• Use drugs
• Run away from home
• Engage in Self-harming or cutting themselves
• Make threats of suicide or attempt it
• Fail school where they were doing well before
• Change their eating patterns – either overeating or not eating
• Aim inappropriate anger and violent behavior toward others
• Exhibit significant changes in their mood or behavior

These signs should be taken seriously, and you should seek help sooner rather than later. Sometimes, parents hold back from seeking professional help due to shame – they feel like they have failed as parents and so hesitate to look for support. Getting help for your child is the best thing you can do, and rather than being a sign of poor parenting, it is a sign of good and compassionate parenting.

If you decide to take your concerns further and seek professional help, you can talk to your doctor for an assessment and recommendations for the next steps. If you are a person of faith, you may decide to take your child for counseling by professionals who use faith-based techniques and resources in addition to other therapies offered elsewhere.

Christian counseling for teens offers your teen space and support for helping them to grow spiritually, express and process their emotions, learn tools to develop problem-solving skills, form a healthy self-image, and cultivate meaningful relationships and lasting change that enables them to live lives that are pleasing to God.

Issues addressed in Christian counseling for teens

In addition to typical transitional issues, Christian counseling for teens can be a resource for teens with concerns that include:

• struggles with faith and spiritual development
• dealing with loss or trauma,
• peer pressure
• harmful behaviors such as addiction and substance abuse
• feelings of emptiness and inadequacy
• anxiety and anxiety-related disorders like panic attack disorder, separation anxiety disorder
• exam stress or other issues at school
• blended family integration
• depression
• coping and adjusting to parents being separated, divorced, or remarrying
• burnout and stress-related issues
• identity issues
• gender and sexuality issues
• self-harm
• violent behavior

Types of counseling and therapy available

Sharing your deepest and darkest secrets with a stranger can be daunting and unsettling. For counseling to be effective, the therapist and the client must build up a relationship of trust where the client feels able to share their thoughts and feelings openly without fear of retribution, rebuke, or judgment.

This is even more true with Christian counseling for teens, so it is important when looking for a counselor for your teen that your teen feels comfortable with the therapist you choose.

Counselors will employ several techniques to build rapport and create an atmosphere of trust. Games, music, and worksheets are useful tools to get your teen to talk, open up, and process what’s going on in their minds.

These and other techniques are used in two basic setups:

Individual Counseling

This is where the teen client meets one-to-one with their therapist for the session. These sessions are of course confidential, and whatever is discussed in the session will not be shared. However, in serious situations such as where there may be a risk of imminent harm or danger to the teen or someone else, confidentiality may be broken and the therapist will speak to the parents after prior discussion with the teen. Individual counseling has the advantage that the teen only has to open up to one person and has the space to ask whatever questions they want to.

Group therapy

This form of therapy is when a group of 4-10 individuals gathers in a weekly session led by a trained professional counselor to focus on a specific issue faced by all group members. It removes the stigma of feeling alone with their struggles, and it can be quite effective because of how some teens will not respond to an older authority figure but they may be more receptive to their peers. Having others to bond with who can relate to their situation can be extremely beneficial to building strategies to overcome their difficulties.

Finding the help you need through Christian counseling for teens

You and your teen may be facing immense challenges. As daunting as they may seem, they are not insurmountable, nor are they permanent. If you are feeling overwhelmed or uncertain about what is going on with your teen at the moment, there are many resources out there to help you understand and chart a way forward. From support groups, crisis centers and many other online resources, help and support are out there.

While asking for help for your child may trigger feelings of failure and shame, reaching out to others, especially professionals, is the right thing to do. A trained therapist, for example, can let you know if there’s anything to worry about, and they can offer you the support you and your family need to allow you to thrive in this season.

Feel free to browse our counselor directory if you’re looking for Christian counseling for teens in Pasadena. We would be honored to walk alongside your teenager toward hope and restoration.