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Adolescent Therapy and Counseling
Young people come to Breakthrough to talk about problems they are having at home, school, or in the community. Often it is the young person's parents who discover that their teenage son or daughter is having difficulty. Therefore, it is usually the parents who make the referral call to Breakthrough.
During the first counseling session, the therapist will usually meet with both the teen and parent(s) to gather some background information and talk about a plan for the therapy. The therapist will explain the teen's right to confidentiality. This can help to encourage teenagers to participate and take responsibility for their therapy. The therapist will usually meet with the young person alone for a little while during the first session so that the teen and therapist can begin to get to know each other. After that, the therapist will meet with the teenager several times (weekly or every other week) to talk with him or her about the problem and begin to work on finding solutions to the problem.
After a few sessions the therapist will want to meet with the parent(s) to give them some information and talk with them about how they can help. The teenager will be invited to join in this discussion with the parent(s). If the young person chooses not to participate, the therapist will tell her or him, in advance, what information will be shared with the parent(s).
The therapist will talk with the teenager's parents and with the teenager about the next steps in the therapy process. This may include more individual sessions, follow-up meetings with the parents, and family therapy sessions. Through discussion with your therapist, a plan to help with your particular situation can be developed.
Therapy with adolescents takes into account the uniqueness and complexity of each adolescent. Breakthrough therapists encourage teens to mobilize their resourcefulness and creativity. One teen, working with her therapist, designed an exercise called "Burden Bricks", to express and deal with the difficulties in her life. This exercise is suitable for both teens and adults.
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