Parenting can almost feel like a balancing act at times, juggling between the dangers of being overly authoritarian or too relaxed. One of the biggest challenges that you may ever come up against as a parents is deciding on whether or not your teenager or “twenty something” needs therapy. “Forcing” your child to go for therapy does not often create the best environment for collaboration between the therapist and your teen and yet not addressing your concerns may only serve to enable your youth’s behaviour problems further.
In a recent article in Psych Central Margarita Tartakovsky writes that “It’s hard enough knowing when you need to see a therapist… but doing this for your teen can seem outright overwhelming”.
I agree that it can be quite stressful to find the “right” therapist to work with your teenager, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be that way. It has been my experience that some youth are open to the idea of going for therapy and actually find relief in the idea that they don’t have to air their dirty laundry with you. Other young people completely resist the idea of seeking help from a stranger and it may take some strategy to encourage this process to unfold.
Your teen or tween may have a number of reasons for resisting therapy (“I’m not the problem,” fear of being teased by friends, fear of the unknown, “I can do it on my own,” etc.) and its your job as a parents to do your best at trying to see things from your child’s perspective.
According to the article called “How to Motivate Your Teen to Attend and Engage in Therapy” there are several avenues for motivating your teen.
