Therapy with adolescents and young adults

Some common challenges adolescents and young adults faced that may adversely impact their mental health are:

• persistent family tension and conflict,
• living with family members who chronically struggle with their physical or mental health,
• chronically emotionally or physically abused by caregivers,
• conflicting expectations or agendas between parents and children,
• sibling rivalry or parental differential treatment of children,
• competition at school, work or other social settings,
• interpersonal difficulties
• peer/ workplace bullying (face-to-face or online),
• low self-confidence and self-esteem
• puberty-related issues,
• identity crisis (including sexual identity)
• identifying academic/ leisure/ vocational pursuits
• starting to become independent

When adolescents and young adults struggle with these highly stressful situations persistently, and yet without the emotional understanding and support from families, teachers, and peers/friends, and without learning how to express their difficult feelings and regulate themselves effectively, they may then send out an SOS through internalizing behaviours, (e.g. depression and anxiety, self-destructive behaviours, psychosomatic complaints, social withdrawal), or externalizing behaviours (e.g. school truancy, bullying and aggression, delinquency and illicit substance use).

During therapy, I show respect and curiosity in you and your life, and create a therapeutic environment that lets you feel safe and free to express yourself, and feel emotionally validated.  I focus on your unique strengths, resources, hopes and dreams in order to support you to discover and get closer to who you want to become. This process hopes to help you grow more emotionally resilient and confident to navigate life transitions and challenges. When appropriate, I make use of different therapeutic tools (e.g. arts and crafts or card games etc.) to facilitate our conversations in therapy. When working with adolescents, parents or caregivers maybe invited to attend some sessions conjointly or individually.

心理治療– 青少年/年輕成年人

青少年和年輕成年人通常會面臨一些共同的挑戰, 如:

• 持續的家庭張力和衝突，
• 長期與受身心健康困擾的家庭成員同住，
• 長期被照顧者在情感或身體上受到虐待，
• 父母與子女之間的期望或意願相互矛盾，
• 兄弟姐妹相互競爭或父母差別對待孩子，
• 被劇烈競爭的學校/工作或其他社交環境包圍著，
• 人際關係困難，
• 被同伴或同事欺凌（面對面或網絡上），
• 低自信心和自尊心，
• 青春期相關問題，
• 身份認同危機 （性取向認同），
• 確認學術/休閒/職業發展方向或
• 開始獨立生活。

當青少年和年輕成年人在沒有家庭，教師和同輩/朋友的情感上的明白和支持下去長期面對這些十分大壓力的情況, 同時又不懂得如何有效地表達和處理他們的情緒, 他們可能會通過內化行為（如: 抑鬱和焦慮, 自我毀滅行為，心身症狀, 社會退縮）或外化行為（如: 逃學，欺凌和侵略，犯罪和使用非法物質）對其他人或世界發出緊急求救信息。

在治療中，我對您和您的生活表示尊重和好奇，並會創造一個能讓您安心和自由地表達自己, 並感到被聆聽和明白的環境。 我專注於您獨特的優勢，資源，希望和夢想，藉以幫助您發現自己想成為一個怎樣的人並向這個方向邁進。 這個過程希望能夠助您更有彈性地處理您的情緒，並有信心地應對生活的過渡階段和挑戰。 於不同情況下，我也會使用不同的治療工具（如: 藝術和手工藝或紙牌遊戲等）來促進我們在治療中的對話。與青少年治療時, 家長或主要照顧者可能會被邀請共同或單獨參與某些面談。