Young People's Counselling—ages 11 to 24
Young people’s counselling is a type of therapy that focuses on helping children and adolescents with their emotional and developmental needs. It can provide support and guidance to help young people better understand their emotions, build resilience, strengthen relationships, cope with challenging situations, and improve overall well being. Counselling can be beneficial for those who struggle with anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, anger
management issues or any behaviour that is adversely affecting the individual or their relationships.
Counselling sessions typically take place over several weeks or months. During these sessions, therapists may ask questions about the young person's past and present experiences in order to gain an understanding of the underlying issues they may be facing. The therapist may also engage in activities such as role playing or creative exercises to help the client express feelings they may not feel comfortable discussing openly. The goal is to
identify areas of strength that can be built upon as well as areas of tension that need to be worked through in order to reach an understanding.
If you are considering working with a counsellor for your adolescent it is important to make sure you select someone who has experience working with this age group. A good therapist should show sensitivity towards both the individual's feelings and parents’ concerns while providing constructive feedback throughout your conversations together. Ultimately, counselling offers a safe space for young people to talk openly about their feelings without fear of judgement from outside sources and ultimately find relief from any worries they may
have.
Our Young people’s counselling service is available to support young people aged between 11-24 years. Those young people who come to us normally want counselling because they are feeling unhappy about something in their lives and cannot find a way to sort things out on their own. Common problems include things like:
● parents splitting up or arguing all the time
● bullying
● exam pressure
● feelings of panic, anxiety, or depression
● sexual identity
● difficulties with relationships at school, at home or with family or friends
But don’t worry if your particular problem is not on this list, one of our counsellors will be able to offer you a supportive space for whatever it is you want to talk about. What you say to our counsellor is confidential unless the counsellor is worried about your or someone else’s safety. Many of our young clients say counselling has helped them to understand things better, to feel much happier and to have much more confidence in themselves.
Notes for Parents or Guardians—Confidentiality
From our point of view, your son, or daughter has the right not to tell you about what is discussed in their meetings with a counsellor, and we ask that you respect that right. Parents can also become part of the therapeutic process as part of our Family Counselling service. Please note, however, that family counselling is only viable if the children concerned are happy to participate.
Case Study
J. is a 14 year old young person, whose father left the family three months ago to live with a new partner from an affair.
J. has two siblings – a sister aged 8 years old and a brother aged 16 years old. Both went to live with their father and J. lived with mum as he felt sorry for her being on her own, although he really would have preferred to live with dad.
Counsellor comments:
"Presenting issue was break up of family and J’s reaction to ‘loss’ of dad. We used animals to represent the picture of his family and important people and also used drawing to illustrate several losses/transitions/changes over the last 5 years. This included house moves, deaths, school changes etc. as well as the establishment of new step siblings with dad’s new relationship."
Use of worksheets helped to identify feelings especially of abandonment and with the use of goal solution focused aims to help him work towards setting up regular contact with dad and re- establishing communication with him as well as feeling less responsible for mum’s needs. He progressed very well in 8-10 sessions and ended the work feeling in a much better place.