Counseling For Teens With Anxiety And Depression
This summer, my wife and I, had our first experience in seeing our 3-year-old daughter emotionally pushed away by peers. Seeing what we saw, left us wanting even more to support our daughter with self-esteem and self-confidence.
As a professional counselor, I truly enjoy helping kids, tweens and teens understand the full scope of self-esteem and self-confidence. Do you have a teen with anxiety, depression or self-harm behaviors?
Often what hinders self-esteem and self-confidence is negative or limiting beliefs. Below is a list of positive helpful beliefs that your child can start using today.
This summer, my wife and I had our first experience in seeing our 3-year-old daughter emotionally pushed away by peers. Seeing what we saw, left us wanting even more to support our daughter with self-esteem and self-confidence.
As a professional counselor, I truly enjoy helping kids, tweens and teens understand the full scope of self-esteem and self-confidence. Do you have a teen with anxiety, depression, or self-harm behaviors?
Often what hinders self-esteem and self-confidence is negative or limiting beliefs. Below is a list of positive helpful beliefs that your child can start using today.
- I am lovable
- I am worthy
- I bring value to myself and to others
- I am wanted
- I care about myself
- Others care about me
- I have a hopeful future
There are three helpful strategies that can build a healthy mindset. A mindset that allows your child to overcome emotional challenges and difficulties.
- Understanding how your thoughts influence your mood. Think about the last time you did something or took on an assignment. Consider a school project. Did you think to yourself something limiting like, “I can’t do this” or “This is way too much”? Thoughts like these are dead-end roads. They lead to doubt, insecurity, and an overall negative self-feeling or depression. Instead, focus on creating opportunities for growth and hope. This can be done by shifting the thoughts to, “I can do this with a little bit of help” or “I have enough time to get this done”.
- Rationalizing beliefs for what they truly are. Using two sheets of paper, you can create lists for your current healthy and unhealthy beliefs. Use one paper for the healthy and the other for the unhealthy. As you write down each belief take time to challenge the belief. For instance, if you write down that you feel trapped, take time to further write the evidence of why you feel trapped. Do this same technique for healthy beliefs. Overall, the goal of this activity is to challenge and dismantle unhealthy beliefs and further develop healthy ones.
- Create a lifestyle aimed to improve self-esteem and self-confidence. Take a moment to yourself. Commit that you will take on the daily, 365 days a year, the challenge called creating a healthy lifestyle. This means that you will practice engaging in the list of positive healthy beliefs. You will take time to understand your beliefs. Lastly, you will take time to rationalize beliefs for what they truly are. The formation of a healthy lifestyle can create the foundation for healthy habits that improve self-esteem and self-confidence.
There are three helpful strategies that can build a healthy mindset. A mindset that allows your child to overcome emotional challenges and difficulties.
- Understanding how your thoughts influence your mood. Think about the last time you did something or took on an assignment. Consider a school project. Did you think to yourself something limiting like, “I can’t do this” or “This is way too much”? Thoughts like these are dead end roads. They lead to doubt, insecurity, and an overall negative self-feeling or depression. Instead, focus on creating opportunities of growth and hope. This can be done by shifting the thoughts to, “I can do this with a little bit of help” or “I have enough time to get this done”.
- Rationalizing beliefs for what they truly are. Using two sheets of paper, you can create lists for your current healthy and unhealthy beliefs. Use one paper for the healthy and the other for the unhealthy. As you write down each belief take time to challenge the belief. For instance, if you write down that you feel trapped, take time to further write the evidence of why you feel trapped. Do this same technique for healthy beliefs. Overall, the goal of this activity is to challenge and dismantle unhealthy beliefs and further develop healthy ones.
- Create a lifestyle aimed to improve self-esteem and self-confidence. Take a moment to yourself. Commit that you will take on the daily, 365 days a year, the challenge called creating a healthy lifestyle. This means that you will practice engaging in the list of positive healthy beliefs. You will take time to understand your beliefs. Lastly, you will take time to rationalize beliefs for what they truly are. The formation of a healthy lifestyle can create the foundation for healthy habits that improve self-esteem and self-confidence.
