Group therapy for teens and adolescents

Does your teenager need help managing her social anxiety or low energy?

Talk therapy groups for adolescents offer a way to practice relationship skills and work on how to make, manage, and keep friends. We emphasize the skill of talking through issues with like-minded peers, working through problems, learning coping skills, and practicing friendship skills.

In our teen groups, we provide teens with adult supervised peer-to-peer advice and coaching, and we help them strengthen their confidence by coaching them to self-advocate, acquire sound advice from their peers, problem solve with other teens, and “try on” new social behaviors.

Middle school core skills girls group

This middle school core skills girls group aims to help increase self-esteem and security in relationships and reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression. It targets three main areas of development for skill training: competence, confidence and connection.

It teaches the tenets of positive psychology to help girls build friendships, increase their confidence, and demonstrate greater competence in their daily lives at home and at school. The group focuses on positive energy for girls including:

• promoting positive thinking
• harboring positive emotions
• practicing positive life skills, and
• building positive connections within the context of a social support group

Although it is appropriate for girls dealing with clinical issues (depression, anxiety, mood problems, inattention, and social issues), our groups also include girls who are fairly high functioning and can participate in both the instructional component as well as the experiential activities.

Middle school boys project groups

This group targets middle school boys who need help with social and interpersonal skills because they may be having trouble making and keeping friends, interacting in groups, or projecting confidence in groups or on their own. These boys will get a chance to practice their leadership and interpersonal skills through their collaborative work on an innovative project together.

Facilitators will provide a two-pronged educational approach throughout the group process, which includes development of group social skills and leadership skills. By offering a project-based group model, facilitators give boys a unique way to engage in the group, learn new skills and practice social interactions.

This group is suited for boys who may have trouble with social or group settings due to issues of self-esteem, attention, frustration, or anxiety.

High school groups for girls with anxiety and depression

Our high school groups for anxiety and depression provide  girls with weekly skills and experiential actions that are designed to help them build a stronger core self. The primary goal is to help girls become their strongest and most balanced emotional selves and this will serve to increase self-esteem and security in their relationships, and reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression.

The group begins with a self-assessment, and a goal setting exercise to help each girl anchor their goals on particular weekly points. Weekly “points” include learning to:

• process their “bucket of emotions,”
• understand primary versus secondary emotions
•  treat emotions as information and energy
• deal with competing emotions
• delineate feelings, thoughts and facts
• practice mindful versus unmindful thoughts
• track negative versus positive self talk
• reframe and organize thoughts towards plans
• learn body calming and caring strategies, and
• develop self versus other identity

All of these “points” will be consolidated through weekly “process” talks and “practice” activities outside of group. The girls will help each other identify and apply each point to a particularly relevant scenario in their lives.

Creativity groups for middle school and high school girls

We also run a summer or school-year creativity group for middle school and high school girls who have issues with self-esteem, anxiety, or mood, and who would benefit from using art to express and work through issues as they create thoughtful, insightful arts and crafts. The format allows for individual expressive work through art therapy, journaling time, and coaching from group co-facilitators. Girls work in small groups with other girls their age.

This is not a typical “talk therapy” group, and rather than emphasizing the practicing or talking through of skills, the leaders will present a social/emotional lesson each week and lead an accompanying art activity. It is based on the concepts of self-exploration and the importance of making room for and developing one’s ability to be mindful and curious in a creative way, which can help members become more open, more flexible, and more relaxed socially. Group members will have the chance to explore topics of identity, thoughts and feelings, and various coping strategies through thoughtful artistic projects.

College transitions group seminar

We offer a college transitions group seminar for 12th graders and first-year college students who could use support coping with the transition from high school to college. This group is specifically a goal-setting accountability group for young adults who are working on developing greater responsibility for their own self-care—especially around issues of depression, eating issues and anxiety. It caters toward high achieving students who have experience in their own individual therapy and who want to work in a different way and at a deeper level in order to feel emotionally and socially ready for the demands of college. It serves as an adjunct or a step-down from weekly individual therapy.