4 Reasons Parents Need Therapy

There’s no doubt about it! Parenting teens, especially in this day and age, is a challenge. 

Parents often feel like parenting today is like having on a blindfold. There are so many issues, so many stresses, so many challenges that our teens struggle with and helping them can not only be overwhelming, but is often unwelcome. 

One of the ways in which therapy helps parents is that it gives parents a space of their own. They have a place to vent, to complain about their child, to express their frustrations, fears and disappointments, all of which should NOT be expressed to their child, especially in anger! Parents need to be heard too. Parents need validation too. Parents need to know they are not as crazy as their teen makes them feel. 

Another way in which therapy helps parents is that it can give them skills to navigate the teen years. Sometimes they are basic communication skills, but skills you normally would not need to use when everything is going okay. However, when our teens are hurting, things we could normally say, will often be twisted and heard negatively, even compliments! Events that our teen says happened or claim we have said, can sometimes seem like they are living in an alternate universe! Having a set of skills to tear down the walls and reach your teen can prove invaluable.

A third way in which therapy helps parents is that it can help them manage their own fears and anxieties, all of which are triggered by the shaky ride our teens often seem to be on. The more learn how to manage them, the more confident our teen will have in us, and the more able they will be to use us as a model to manage themselves.

A fourth way in which therapy helps parents is that our teens feel less like damaged good when they see us saying, “maybe we have something to learn too.” They are often so overwhelmed by all their feelings that they feel deeply ashamed, ashamed of their anger, ashamed of their own self-hatred, ashamed of how they talk to us, although they’d never let you know that! Seeing that we are willing to acknowledge we are imperfect and could use the benefit of another’s perspective, gives them permission to do the same.