teens ask: What is psychotherapy?

Psychotherapy is primarily talk-based therapy and is intended to help people improve and maintain their mental health and well-being.

Growing up is hard. Finding your own voice is sometimes a challenge when you’re still figuring out what you want to say. Sometimes it’s hard to feel really heard. 

Psychotherapy provides a space to try out new ways of thinking about a problem in a safe space. 

Sometimes talking to someone with a fresh perspective helps us to see patterns of behaviour that we want to change or skills we want to learn. 

Our sessions are an online space created by the privileged relationship between client and therapist. What you say will not be judged. It is a space for increasing understanding, building compassion, confidence, and learning about yourself.

A typical session is 50 minutes. You can do as much or as little talking as you like. Together we will discuss goals for your therapy. Typically I see clients either once a week or once every two weeks (biweekly). We can discuss this together to see what will work best for you. 

What we discuss in session is confidential. This means that without your permission, I cannot share what we talk about with anyone. 

The only exceptions to this are:

If I believe that you or someone else is in imminent danger, if a minor is being abused, if I become aware that another professional has engaged in sexual misconduct, and finally if I am subpoenaed (requested) by a court to produce my records. I take your privacy very seriously. If 

you have questions, please ask. 

If you are under 18 and living with your parents we will discuss in what way you would like to have your parents involved, if at all. 

For many teens, having a private space to talk about things with someone other than parents is useful.

For others, having parents involved for specific types of support (eg. reminders to attend session, paying for sessions, helping with a specific family conflict issue) is useful. 

We will talk about this together and find what will work best for you.

I cannot speak with your parents without your permission.