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Dr. David Rosenthal, Psy.D.
Licensed Professional Counselor
8302 Indiana Avenue,
Suite 11
Lubbock TX 79423
Phone (806) 799-3188
Fax (806) 799-3190 |
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This population is, especially in our day and time, one of the most problematic passages of life that an individual will pass through. Youth today are bombarded from every angle with demands to be a certain way, act a certain way, and look a certain way. Material concerns are generally placed way out of perspective and out of reach in many circumstances. Many teenagers lose and some never grasp the ability to cope and attempt to do so through utilizing illicit drugs (including alcohol), joining dysfunctional peer groups, eating disorders, a growing tendency to self-mutilate, and ultimately, the all too common practice of solving their short-term problems with the long-term and permanent solution of suicide.Primary symptoms seen during this time period are mostly related to those mentioned above which generally results in some form of depression or anxiety disorder. Generally, these maladies are most successfully treated with a combination of medications and talk therapy.
Many adolescents have problems with poor thinking skills in that here is little or no ability to exercise critical thinking skills. Critical thinking skills are essential to understanding first, where you are, and second, how you got there. They are also necessary to getting you to where you want to be. Cognitive-Behavioral therapy techniques are utilized to give power and control back to the adolescent in order that they may find some meaning and direction during this difficult passage.
In some cases, the teen will have to be compelled into therapy against their will - other times they will comply willingly because they recognize there is something amiss in their lives. Whatever the circumstance, the results in most cases are most gratifying and profitable as it was for me in my personal experience. For me, seeing a good counselor who understood me during my teen years greatly helped me negotiate some very tough times in my life. I came out of that experience thinking that I would like to do the very same thing in counseling others although this kind of result is not necessarily a common one.
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"When we are no longer able to change a situation - we are challenged to change ourselves."
Victor Frankl
"Whenever we seek to avoid the responsibility for our own behavior, we do so by attempting to give that responsibility to some other individual or organization or entity. But this means we then give away our power to that entity."
M.Scott Peck
"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity.... It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow."
Melodie Beattie
"Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves."
Carl Jung
"We are never so defensless against suffering as when we love."
Sigmund Freud
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Teens
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