Child, Teen and Adult Psychotherapy Services in San Diego
  • Welcome
  • About Thrive
    • Meet the Thrive Team >
      • Dr. Erica Wollerman
      • Dr. Maria Fowlks
      • Jennifer Gonzalez, LMFT
      • Ying-Ying Shiue, LPCC
      • Kim Macias, APCC
      • Dr. Andrea Seldomridge
      • Molly Llamas, AMFT
      • Abbey Stewart, AMFT
    • Appointment Information
  • Contact
  • Services
    • Group Therapy at Thrive >
      • Anxiety Group For Teens
      • Parent Support Group
      • Middle School Social-Emotional Processing Group
      • Young Adults Group (18-24)
    • Therapy for Children
    • Therapy for Teens and Young Adults
    • Therapy for Adults
    • Family Therapy
    • Parent Consultation
  • Resources
    • Information About Therapy
    • Academic Resources
    • San Diego Resources
    • Covid-19 Resources
    • Anti-Racism Resources
    • Recommended Reading
    • Resources for Specific Challenges >
      • Addiction and Recovery Information
      • ADHD
      • Anger Management
      • Anxiety
      • Autism/Developmental Disorders
      • Child Abuse and Domestic Violence
      • Depression
      • Eating Disorders/Body Image Issues
      • Personal Growth/Managing Perfectionism
      • LGBTQIA
      • Parenting
      • Relationships
      • Stress Management/Mindfulness
      • Teen Issues
  • Blog
Picture

Parenting Teens Blog Series: Less Down Time

1/8/2020

 
Picture

By: Dr. Erica Wollerman 

Welcome to 2020!  I know this year has started off busily for many families. I thought it would be a great idea to restart our Parenting Teens Blog Series!  As you may remember, we have talked about a lot of reasons why it is hard to not only BE a teen these days, but to PARENT a teen as well. 

Here are some highlights from past blogs in this series before you check out the post about how teens are so over scheduled these days below! 
​
  • Focus on Happiness and Achievement

  • Pressure of College Admissions
​
  • Social Media 

Check out this post about lacking down time below as well! We hope you are enjoying this series! 

Unfortunately, our whole world seems to be impacted by a sense of overwhelm and feeling overscheduled. At Thrive, we see this all the time with our teen clients in particular. We often work with teens who are highly motivated and pursuing so much in their lives, which is incredible to see but also at times worrisome. I only use that word because I am concerned about the pace that life seems to go at for our teens. We have teens using their free periods at school to come and fit in therapy because otherwise they can’t even make it tto our office (where we have evening and weekend sessions available) due to their demanding schedules. 
 
I am concerned about the lack of downtime for many reasons but here are the highlights: 
  • Stress – Teens today are much more stressed than they have been in past generations. They are trying to do much more with their time, particularly to help them secure admissions into a great college. Often, teens do not even have time to have a part-time job because they are balancing so many other activities just to get into college. This is definitely impacting their stress levels which impacts everything from memory to mood to physical health. 
  • Burnout – As described above, teens are super stressed currently and a big concern for me is that they are going to start experiencing burnout before they even make it to the college they have tried so hard to get into. When I talk to my colelauges in coleluge counseling centers, they share that very often this is a challenge on campus as well. Teens graduate feeling overwhelmed and then start college feeling overwhelmed, leading to struggles with grades, adjustment to college in general, mental health issues (depression, anxiety, suicidality, etc.), and some may then return home feeling unsuccessful or like a failure. 
  • Less creativity – Unfortunately, another side effect of our overscheduled lives is a huge lack of creativity. Consider this, in order to be creative we need to have periods of time to rest, recover, and relax enough for our brains to shift out of “productive” mode and into a more “creative” mode. 
  • Anxiety, mood, and sleep issues – As mentioned above, the stress and pressure that teens feel to do “all the things” possible to get into college, often leads them to be overscheduled, stressed, and places them at risk for burnout. It also places them at risk for anxiety, depression, and sleep challenges. This is extremely concerning during the teen years when impulsivity is high as well because not managing mental health challenges leads to learning to cope in often unhealthy ways like self-injury, substance use, or numbing out using electronics. 
 
As you can see, there are many reasons to be worried about the pace of life for teens in America. A topic I often talk about with the teens I work with is the concept of cause and effect. It is just not possible to spend week after week, let alone year after year, with little down time and far too little sleep (some of the teens I work with sleep around 4 hours a night!) and not have some negative consequences. For every action, there is a reaction even if it is not immediate and it is important for parents to know this so that they can help their teens manage their schedules, responsibilities, or goals more effectively. 

If you would like to talk more about parenting your teen with a Thrive therapist, contact us today!
At Thrive, we take a positive, client centered approach to therapy that is focused on creating a genuine connection with our clients.  If you would like to talk with a Thrive Therapist about yourself, your child, or teen attending therapy, please reach out to us by phone at 858-342-1304. 
 
As always, thanks for reading and comments are always welcome regarding any issues around child or teen psychotherapy services in San Diego by Thrive Therapy Studio.  
 
To stay in the loop on the services offered and to receive updated information about Thrive, please feel free to sign up for the newsletter through the following link: 
http://eepurl.com/dsgLNL.
steph link
1/25/2020 11:52:51 pm

This has been a problem for teens in this modern era. The pressure of academics and careerism has really exhausted teens of this generation with their level of stress shooting up, no time for themselves to just go and have fun. This is an alarming situation


Comments are closed.

    Blogs from the Thrive Family!

    Musings from Erica, Jennifer, Maria, Lauren, Kim, Andrea, Molly, Abbey, and Ying-Ying

    Categories

    All
    Acceptance
    ADHD
    Alexina Clarke
    Andrea Seldomridge
    Angela Bianco
    Anoushey Nazir Khan
    Anxiety
    Attachment
    Autism
    Behavioral Challenges
    Communication
    Copin
    Coping
    Coronavirus
    COVID 19
    COVID-19
    Depression
    Divorce
    Early Childhood
    Emotional Expression
    Erica Wollerman
    Family
    Gratitude
    Group Therapy
    Holidays
    Intention
    Jennifer Gonzalez
    Lauren Spinelli
    Managing Stress
    Maria Fowlks
    Mindfulness
    Motivation
    New Mother
    Panicha McGuire
    Parenting
    Parenting Teens
    Perfectionism
    Play Therapy
    Resilience
    Self Esteem
    Teens
    Telehealth
    Therapy At Thrive
    Thrive Team
    Ying Ying Shiue
    Ying-Ying Shiue
    Young Adult

    Archives

    August 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    October 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2015
    October 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015

    RSS Feed

Picture

Call Today!  858-342-1304

Thrive Therapy Studio
5230 Carroll Canyon Rd. Ste 110
​San Diego, CA 92121
"Watch your thoughts, 
They become words. 
Watch your words, 
They become actions. 
Watch your actions, 
They become habits. 
Watch your habits, 
They become character; 

It becomes your destiny."

Contact Us


Thrive Therapy Studio Therapists Offer Child, Teen, Adult, Marriage and Family Psychotherapy Counseling Services in San Diego, California.
Thrive's Notice of Privacy Practices 

Picture
  • Welcome
  • About Thrive
    • Meet the Thrive Team >
      • Dr. Erica Wollerman
      • Dr. Maria Fowlks
      • Jennifer Gonzalez, LMFT
      • Ying-Ying Shiue, LPCC
      • Kim Macias, APCC
      • Dr. Andrea Seldomridge
      • Molly Llamas, AMFT
      • Abbey Stewart, AMFT
    • Appointment Information
  • Contact
  • Services
    • Group Therapy at Thrive >
      • Anxiety Group For Teens
      • Parent Support Group
      • Middle School Social-Emotional Processing Group
      • Young Adults Group (18-24)
    • Therapy for Children
    • Therapy for Teens and Young Adults
    • Therapy for Adults
    • Family Therapy
    • Parent Consultation
  • Resources
    • Information About Therapy
    • Academic Resources
    • San Diego Resources
    • Covid-19 Resources
    • Anti-Racism Resources
    • Recommended Reading
    • Resources for Specific Challenges >
      • Addiction and Recovery Information
      • ADHD
      • Anger Management
      • Anxiety
      • Autism/Developmental Disorders
      • Child Abuse and Domestic Violence
      • Depression
      • Eating Disorders/Body Image Issues
      • Personal Growth/Managing Perfectionism
      • LGBTQIA
      • Parenting
      • Relationships
      • Stress Management/Mindfulness
      • Teen Issues
  • Blog