Supporting Your Teen's Mental Health

This recent article from CNN about How to Support Your Teen's Mental Health is an excellent outline of strategies every parent can use with their child. The changing dynamics of the college application process, new safety guidelines at school and adjusting to different options to connect with friends are all difficult changes to our children's lives. It's important to remember that a person's mental health is being able to recognize, manage and adapt our emotional responses to our environment in appropriate ways. Your mental health is NOT being happy all of the time... it's okay to be stressed or sad or angry. How you manage and adapt to those emotions is the "health" part. Here are a few steps you can take to connect with your child's mental health:

1. Listen First - let them express what's happening and how it's impacting them. We all need someone to listen instead of giving solutions or solving the problem for us.
2. Build Resiliency - Ask about aspects of the situation that they can control and can't control. Explore what steps they can take and own.
3. Determine Whether More Help is Needed - Teenagers often experience emotional roller coasters because of their development. Decide whether this issue has been happening for more than a week or is a repetitive situation. A professionally trained counselor, therapy or psychologist may be better able to offer guidance.

If you want to talk more about ways to support your child or about local resources to seek additional help, please reach out to Ms. Mahovetz (MS counselor) or Mrs. Borkovic (US counselor).