Therapy for Teens & Tweens

A lot of parents who reach out to me are doing so because they believe in their kid and they're ready to find something that actually fits. You've probably been advocating, researching, and troubleshooting for a while. You know your child better than anyone, and you've gotten here because you haven't given up on finding the right support.

What I hear most from parents after their child has been working with me for a while isn't that their kid learned a new skill, though that happens too. It's that their child seems like they finally make sense to themselves.

The kid who used to swing from fine to completely overwhelmed in twenty minutes starts to understand what's actually happening when that hits. The one who would spiral for days after a friend didn't text back starts to recognize that feeling for what it is, and it loses a little of its grip.

The one who dreaded Sundays because Monday meant school again, or who came home and just shut down, starts to have a little more room inside of it all. Adolescence is already a lot, and when your brain runs hotter than most, everything tends to run hotter too. But that same intensity, that same depth of feeling, is also where a lot of their magic lives.

It doesn't disappear, but it starts to feel survivable. More than survivable. A lot of kids come in feeling like the problem and leave feeling genuinely curious about who they are and what they're capable of. That shift is real, and it's one of my favorite things to watch happen.

Sessions are collaborative, low-pressure, and built around how your kid's brain actually works, not someone else's idea of how it should. Your child will never be handed a generic list and told to try harder. They won't have to explain themselves from scratch every session or leave parts of who they are at the door.

Yes! This comes up a lot. Many neurodivergent young people have more than one type of neurodivergence, and that's something I'm very familiar with. I work with tweens and teens who are autistic, dyslexic, have ADHD, have OCD, and any combination of neurodivergent experiences. I work with the whole picture of who your child is, not just one part of them.

And if you're still figuring out what fits for your kid, you're in very good company. A lot of families come in feeling exactly the same way, and that's something we can work through together.

They don't need an evaluation to start. A lot of families come in with a strong sense that something is going on for their kid, with or without formal paperwork, and that parental knowledge is genuinely valuable.

Some families find that pursuing a formal diagnosis is useful. Others land on their own understanding of how their child's brain works and that's enough.

Either way, the shortcut is real. A shortcut to understanding which parts of how your teen’s brain works have been making things harder, and to knowing what supports are most likely to help. It can save years of throwing strategies at a wall and not understanding why nothing seems to land.

Not at all. Some of the kids I work with have a formal ADHD diagnosis. Some are in the process of getting one. Some families are sitting with a strong suspicion and are ready to understand their child better, even without a label to point to yet. And some aren't interested in a formal diagnosis at all, and that's completely okay too.

Your child doesn't need a piece of paper to start this work. What matters is that what they're experiencing feels real and is getting in the way. The constant friction at school. The friendships that feel harder than they should. The sense that everyone else got a manual they never received. That's enough to start.

If we're working together and ADHD fits what I'm seeing clinically with your child, yes, I can add that as a diagnosis and communicate it to other providers, schools, or anyone else on your child's support team if you'd like.

What I don't offer is a standalone diagnostic evaluation, the kind where a family comes in specifically for a formal assessment and walks out with a written report. That's a different kind of service. If that's what you're looking for, I can help point you toward someone who offers it.