Guiding Your Teen to the Professional Support They Deserve

It is among the more challenging moments of parenting when we realize our support alone is not enough. But when this happens, it is good and responsible parenting to guide our tweens and teens towards professional help. 

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How you frame the help-seeking process can impact your teen’s willingness to seek help. Help them understand that what they are currently experiencing is temporary and professional guidance can support them to learn to be more comfortable with their feelings. 

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Reinforce that seeking treatment is an act of strength. When it comes to asking for help, some teens may feel like: “I should be able to handle it. I shouldn’t need anybody else.”  Start with the right language – it is not what they “need,” but what they “deserve.” Knowing you deserve guidance is an act of self-awareness. Strong people know they can feel better, deserve to feel better, and will take the steps to feel better.

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Let your teen know they will not be alone in overcoming their challenges. Some people fear that by getting professional help, they will lose those supportive relationships they have relied on (including YOU!).  Therefore, make it clear that seeking professional help does not mean giving up other critical support systems.  Explain that because they’ll be able to focus on problems with the professional, they’ll learn to relieve stress, and their relationships with family and friends may be strengthened. 

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The sensitivity and depth of feelings that may trouble your teen now is what positions them to have a full, meaningful life later. Guide them to understand that although it is hard to feel so deeply now, people with deep sensitivity make the best friends, life partners, colleagues, supervisors, and parents.  To get there though, they must learn to manage the complexity of their feelings.  Professional guidance can help.  

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For a deeper dive into this topic, turn to 

https://parentandteen.com/seek-professional-help/

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