Adolescent Psychotherapy
Adolescence is psychologically one of the most demanding periods of human development. The task is formidable: to separate from the parental container, to construct an identity that is genuinely one’s own, to navigate the intensity of peer relationships and emerging sexuality, and to do all of this while the neurological architecture that regulates emotion and executive function is still being built. The vulnerability of this period is not weakness. It is the natural consequence of a genuinely difficult developmental process.
When adolescents come to therapy, it is usually because the process has become stuck or painful in a way that is affecting their functioning, their relationships, or their sense of themselves. The presenting problems are various: anxiety and depression, disordered eating, self-harm, difficulties with identity and sexuality, social withdrawal, school refusal, substance use, or a more general sense of misery or confusion that they cannot articulate.
How adolescent therapy differs from adult work
Adolescent psychotherapy requires a specific approach that differs meaningfully from adult work. The therapeutic alliance must be built carefully — adolescents are appropriately suspicious of adult authority and will not engage with a therapist who feels like an extension of the parental or institutional structure they are trying to separate from. The work needs to meet the adolescent where they are rather than expecting them to operate within an adult frame.
The practice works with adolescents from 13 upward. The approach is integrative and responsive to what the individual young person brings, drawing on art therapy and creative modalities where verbal engagement is limited. Parent consultations are offered alongside the adolescent work where appropriate, navigating the delicate question of parental involvement in a way that serves the therapeutic process rather than compromising the confidentiality that makes it possible.
Assessment and referral
An initial assessment involves a session with the adolescent and, separately, a consultation with parents or carers. The assessment establishes what the presenting difficulty is, what has been tried, what the family system looks like, and whether individual therapy — and if so what kind — is the most appropriate response. Where specialist assessment or intervention is needed beyond what the practice offers, referral pathways are available.