Teen Issues

I enjoy working with adolescents and their families. I believe family therapy is very powerful and can lead to significant understanding and change. I have worked with adolescents during my entire career and believe I am able to build rapport easily and support them with their goals for growth.

Most of my career has been working with youth in foster care, mentoring, and in residential placements for youth who have been adjudicated and are on probation or parole. I am experienced working with youth with behavioral struggles, figuring out their identity, dealing with substance abuse, legal problems, or emerging mental health disorders. The clients I've worked with have expected me to be someone they can relate to as well, and I am goofy, a gamer, sometimes inappropriate and patient.

Most of my career has been working with youth in foster care, mentoring, and in residential placements for youth who have been adjudicated and are on probation or parole. I am experienced working with youth with behavioral struggles, figuring out their identity, dealing with substance abuse, legal problems, or emerging mental health disorders. The clients I've worked with have expected me to be someone they can relate to as well, and I am goofy, a gamer, sometimes inappropriate and patient.

At Newport Academy, we believe that true transformation occurs as our teens learn to see themselves as beautiful, bright, and powerful people who can take control of their own lives. In order to help our patients achieve that goal, we maintain the highest possible standards for our services, and commission third-party evaluations of our programming. By consistently gathering and analyzing data related to our outcomes, we’re able to make more strategic and tailored decisions for our patients.

Adolescence is a time of life with tremendous physical and psychological growth. It comes with amazing leaps and bounds, as well as struggles and challenges. I am honored to sit with my teen clients as they let me into their worlds, and together we help navigate the trying times and celebrate the wins.

I have specialized training and experience in working with youth. I started my career in School Counseling and have worked in both a middle school and high school setting. I am well versed in the issues facing youth today.

I intricately and intimately understand the unique challenges that accompany childhood and adolescence. I know how to relate and build rapport with kids and teens. I believe that the greatest gift we can give to our children is the gift of nonjudgmental understanding, and it can be extremely helpful to provide them with an objective third party support. I specialize in helping younger individuals successfully manage their growing pains and navigate through the complex challenges of life.

I have worked extensively with adolescents and teenagers on everything from anxiety/panic attacks to Identity, depression, self harm, and the early stages of eating or substance disorders. We also work on issues related to the covid-19 pandemic, online vs. in-person school, academic pressures, perfectionism, how to make decisions about choosing a high school or college. And I focus with them on increasing their strengths such as creativity, insight, and the desire to do the therapeutic work.

With 25 yrs of experience in the educational field as a teacher and school counselor, I find it easy to build rapport and trust with this age group. Emotional regulation, self esteem, friendships, anxiety, depression, self harm, suicidal ideation, anger, self image among others are some of the common issues I can treat using a variety of therapy techniques to help adolescents overcome them.

Even when family members and friends are supportive, teens and their families can benefit from additional help. Teens often feel misunderstood by those around them, afraid to burden the people they love with their emotions, or shy to admit the thoughts/feelings they think no one else have. Counseling provides a safe space where young clients can speak honestly about their experiences without fear of judgment and develop healthy coping skills to deal with sadness, anxiety, and stress.

Adolescents work through the many challenges (self-esteem issues, suicidal ideation, depression, anxiety, identity issues, substance abuse, peer/family conflict, self-harm, etc.) they face in that stage of life, with my experience as a middle school counselor, I have a specific set of tools to support and foster growth in children/teenagers.

Help teens figure out the best way to identify and express how they are feeling. Share better communication techniques so teens and their families can begin to understand each other honestly. Allow teens to have a space to share their thoughts without being judged.

I help teens and young adults break free of feeling like they just cannot get anything right. I support clients to get out of their heads and unstuck from patterns of rumination, worry, and shame. I support clients to move out of self-limiting beliefs and negative thought patterns to allow for more flexibility, creativity, and joy to enter their lives.

I love my work with teenagers and have worked with teenagers for nine years. Adolescence can be a time of great pain as well as great growth and initiation into great wisdom.

Teens currently have a unique combination of social/emotional/academic stressors, issues related to technology and social media, and a lack of typical development due to the pandemic. This has resulted in a tremendous uptick in teens accessing mental health services, often due to stated anxiety and stress and often including issues of depression and/or safety. Our clinicians are well-versed in these issues and strive to support teens while maintaining a balance with parental involvement.

In my counseling practice, I support teens, college students and young adults who are struggling with the stressors and anxieties of the pandemic, school, friends, families, life, and self. Many teens and young adults may also be experiencing other emotional or behavioral responses to the challenges they are enduring, as well as past traumas. Add in a pandemic and todays youth’s lives have been flipped upside down. Together we work collaboratively as we navigate through the up's and downs.

Your teen isn't always going to feel comfortable approaching you with hard topics. A lot of my clients discuss their discovery of sex or drugs with me whenever rapport is built, and I always want to foster open communication and trust regarding those topics. I always tell my clients that I wasn't their age too long ago and want to explore the reasons why they do things that we often view as dangerous or irresponsible.

I specialize in working with teens/emerging adults. The transition into adulthood can be challenging and filled with stress. I work teenagers and emerging adults to process this transition, develop coping methods, and challenge the unique stressors during this life period.

Adolescence is such a pivotal time full of exciting changes and finding ourselves. However, it can also be a challenging time for some, whether it's coping with symptoms of anxiety and depression, exploring our identity, or managing a new busy schedule. I enjoy working with teens of all backgrounds and offering them a safe place to express themselves, process their emotions, and work together toward their goals.

Relationships Bullying Self-Esteem Trauma Anxiety Depression ADHD Developmental Concerns Peer Relationships