Challenges and help during adolescence

Time of rapid change

Adolescence is a challenging time for both teenagers and their families. It is a time when young people are developing rapidly, both physically and emotionally, and facing a range of new experiences and pressures. While many teenagers navigate this time successfully, others may struggle with the challenges of adolescence and may benefit from therapy or counselling.

Some of the challenges that adolescents face:

Identity Development: Adolescents are in the process of figuring out who they are and where they fit in the world. This can be a confusing and challenging process that can lead to feelings of anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem.

Peer Pressure: Adolescents are often heavily influenced by their peers and may feel pressure to conform to social norms or engage in risky behaviours. This can lead to issues such as substance abuse, bullying or self-harm. These issues are often complicated or amplified by social media. Social media can sometimes be a tool of social pressure and bullying and other times a mirror for society. The interconnectedness of the Internet exposes us to a flood of stimuli that human beings are not capable of handling.

Academic and Career Goals: Adolescents are also under pressure to perform academically and make decisions about their future career paths. Tertiary Education requirements, writing of NBT’s (National Benchmark Tests), strict selection processes in some programmes can lead to anxiety and uncertainty. Negative comparisons in the media, seeing a matric qualification in South Africa (at least in government schools) as inferior to those in other parts of the world, lead to a pessimistic outlook and an inability to act.

Family Relationships: Adolescents may also struggle with relationships within their families. This can include conflicts with parents or siblings, or difficulty navigating changing family dynamics as with divorce, parent(s) becoming unemployed, implications of financial difficulties etc.

Counselling | Therapy

Counselling can be a helpful resource for adolescents and their families who are struggling with these challenges. Some of the ways that counselling can help include:

Providing a Safe Space: Therapy can provide a safe and confidential space for adolescents to talk about their feelings, fears, and concerns without judgment or criticism.

Developing Coping Skills: Therapy can help adolescents cope with stress, anxiety, and other difficult emotions.

Improving Communication: Counselling can help adolescents and their families improve communication and resolve conflicts in a healthy and productive way.

Building Resilience: People are often focused on trying to counteract every negative, finding a solution/ tool for every problem. While there is nothing wrong with that, it can be often be impractical or even impossible – the time spent to counteract every single problem, problems change over time, new problems occur and many human problems don’t have answers or solutions. However, counselling with the aim of developing resilience, can help adolescents build a sense of self-worth, which can help them navigate all the challenges of adolescence with greater confidence and ease. Greater resilience is not situation or problem specific – greater resilience enables you to deal better with all challenges.

Summary

In conclusion, adolescence can be a challenging time for both teenagers and their families. However, counselling can be a helpful resource for those who are struggling with the pressures and challenges of this developmental stage. Counselling can provide a safe and supportive space for adolescents to talk about their feelings, develop coping skills, improve communication, and build resilience.

Teenager | adolescent | teen | adolescence