33: How to Help Your Teenager with Anxiety and Stress with Lorraine Platt, MA, LMFT

Does your teenager have anxiety? Being a teenager is hard enough, but add to that peer pressure, social media, school testing and relationships, and it’s no wonder that many of today’s teens are facing a very real battle with anxiety.  If you'd like to learn how to become a pillar of support to your teenagers, to help them through this really challenging time in their lives, listen in to today's show, and find out from Robbin's guest Lorraine Platt, who is with Teen Solutions.   Lorraine and her husband, Richard do some really good work with teen girls and boys and their parents. Today, Lorraine, who is both compassionate and a wealth of knowledge, talks about the hot topic of teens and anxiety. Listen in now and find out how you can really support teens, with all that they have coming to them.   Today, Lorraine talks to Robbin about:   •The high levels of stress for teens today. •Where she becomes concerned about the stress turning into worry. •What she sees coming up with teens who are battling with stress. •The most important message that you can give to your child: You're enough and I love you exactly as you are. •The need for boundaries with parents and teens, to create a sense of safety. •The need to rest and integrate and recover from the necessary stress. •The importance of healthy downtime in teen's lives. •That boredom has value in stimulating creativity. •A good boundary to use- taking away your teen's cellphone at night. •That it's never too late to create boundaries with teens. •How important it is for your teen to feel connected to you and supported, if they're experiencing anxiety. • Finding balance, to relieve anxiety. •Creating the space for your teen to hang out with you... and not with their cellphone. •Ways that teens tend to try to have control and slow things down in their lives. •Why teens tend to resist so much. •That the expectations placed on teens today are higher today than they were in the '70's and '80's. •Ways that you can begin to connect meaningfully with your teenager.     Links:   For Robbin's Infographic, go to: www.soloparentlife.com    For Lorraine's blog, go to: www.teensolutionstherapy.com