How Test Anxiety Might Affect Your Teenager

As the school year nears its end, many students are preparing for final exams. While it is natural to feel a little anxious about these high-stakes assessments, some students experience overwhelming levels of anxiety that can interfere with their ability to perform well. This is known as test anxiety, and it can have serious consequences…

Understanding Teen Depression: Signs, Causes, and Treatment

Depression is a mental health condition that is marked by apathy, sadness, and a lack of interest in life. It can be insidious in how it affects an individual’s well-being, seeping into and affecting all aspects of life: physical, emotional, social, and psychological. Although it can be easy to dismiss depression as a temporary issue…

6 Ways you can support your teen over the holidays

The holiday season can be a wonderful and magical time. It can also be a source of stress and family conflict for many – between frantically buying presents, attending parties, traveling to see family, and hosting out-of-town guests, the holidays can quickly become overwhelming. Research has found that during the winter holidays, people experience lower…

Parents: What to do if your teen is struggling with their grades?

Often, when teens struggle with grades, parents tend to either go into full drill sergeant mode and “ground” or yell at their teenager, OR they may get into helicopter parent mode and try doing the teen’s homework. Neither of these options tends to work well for the teen or the parents. Control battles, trying to…

Value Testing: 4 Reasons Why Teens Say Outrageous Things

Teens love trying out a wide range of values and then seeing how the people around them respond. This is an essential part of teen self-concept building and is very developmentally appropriate. Often, teens love seeing their parents react to these new values negatively. Once the parents have a negative reaction, the teen will double…

How to talk to your teenager about substance use

Not all drugs are created equal and neither is all drug use. Substance use falls into three categories: Most teens experiment with substances at some point. However, of those who experiment, most will not go on to use or abuse drugs. How to set boundaries with your teen about substance use: When talking to your…

A Parents Guide to Raising Responsible Teens

The goal of parenting teens is to create responsible adults who are equipped with tools that will enable them to make wise choices throughout life. Responsible teens feel good about themselves. The best way we can do this is by allowing teens to own their problems and the solutions to those problems. Teens who enter…

Which teen parenting style do you use?

Parenting teenagers can bring out the best and worst in us. Knowing which parenting style you tend to use when you’re upset, anxious, annoyed, or trying to cope with your teen growing up can be a game-changer. Which style do you use? Four styles of parenting 1. The Helicopter The helicopter parent makes a lot…