Therapy for Parents of Teenagers
For the parent — when your kid has stopped talking to you and everything you try seems to make it worse.
You're not failing. You're parenting someone whose job right now is to pull away from you, often at exactly the moment they need you most. This is therapy for you, not for your teen.
Schedule a Free ConsultationThe Door Closed and You Didn't See It Coming
For years you knew what was going on with your child. Then somewhere between thirteen and sixteen, the information stopped. Now you get one-word answers, a closed door, and a version of your kid that other adults describe as delightful while you get the eye-roll.
What makes this so painful is that the usual parenting tools stop working — and often backfire. Asking questions produces less information, not more. Taking the phone escalates rather than corrects. Reasoning gets heard as lecturing. You're still the parent, but the levers you had at eight simply aren't there at fifteen, and nobody hands you the new set.
Meanwhile the stakes feel enormous. Anxiety and depression among teenagers have risen sharply, and you're parenting through a landscape of social media, vaping, and pressures that didn't exist when you were their age. You lie awake running scenarios. You check their location. You read the room every single day for signs of how bad it is.
And there's the part that's hardest to admit out loud: some days you don't like them very much. You love them without question, and you're also exhausted, resentful, and grieving the kid who used to want to be around you. That's not a failure of love. It's what this stage actually costs, and it's almost never said in the school pickup line.
This Is Therapy for You
I work with parents, not teenagers. That's a deliberate scope. You are the most consistent relationship in your teen's life, and you're the one person in this system you can actually work on. When a parent becomes less reactive and more anchored, it changes the dynamic — often more than another adult lecturing your kid would.
We separate your fear from your response. Most escalations between parents and teens are driven by parental fear arriving as anger or control. Fear is appropriate here. But when it drives the interaction, it reliably produces the withdrawal you were trying to prevent. Learning to feel it without acting from it is much of the work.
We look at what your teen activates in you. Your child is currently the age you were when something happened to you — and adolescence has a way of surfacing it. IFS is excellent here: the part of you that goes rigid about a curfew usually has a history, and understanding it changes what you do at 11pm far more than resolving to stay calm does.
We get you and your partner on the same page. Stress splits parents into opposing roles — one hard, one soft — and then they fight each other instead of the problem. We can work on that together.
And we make room for the grief. The end of the years when they wanted you is a real loss, and almost nobody gives parents permission to mourn it.
What Parents Bring In
You don't need a crisis to come. “Things are hard and I don't know what I'm doing anymore” is reason enough.
Disconnection & Stonewalling
The closed door, the headphones, the sense that you're living with someone who's already moved out emotionally — and the loneliness of missing your own child.
Explosive Conflict
Fights that go nuclear over nothing, said things you both regret, and the pattern where every conversation becomes a standoff about who has the power.
Fear for Their Mental Health
Watching your teen struggle with anxiety, depression, self-harm, or an eating disorder — and the particular terror of not knowing how much they're not telling you.
Boundaries & Letting Go
Where to hold firm and where to release. Phones, driving, substances, relationships — and the impossible calculus of keeping them safe while letting them become independent.
If You're Worried About Your Teen's Safety
Pulling away and moodiness are developmentally normal. These are not, and they warrant prompt professional assessment: withdrawal from everything they once enjoyed, significant changes in sleep or eating, self-harm, giving away possessions, or any talk of not wanting to be here.
If you believe your teen is in immediate danger, call or text 988— the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline — or go to your nearest emergency room. Trust your instinct here. Parents are usually right that something is wrong, even when they can't yet say what.
Frequently Asked Questions
You don't have to figure this one out alone.
A free 15-minute call — for you, about the kid you're worried about.
No commitment required · Completely confidential