Therapy (63 found)
Note: These stories are from Represent and its sister publication, YCteen, which is written by New York City public high school students.
When Samira is sent to a mental hospital she feels trapped, until a sympathetic social worker helps her open up. (full text)
Psychotherapist Russell Saunders explains how to heal from a parent's abuse or neglect, how to make boundaries with those parents, and what needs to happen before you can forgive them (full text)
Elvia's mom dies when she's a senior in high school. In despair, she shuts down, but heals with the help of therapy, writing, and caring friends and mentors. (full text)
E.F. looks back on her mother's abuse and her own fighting at school. She is placed with her grandmother at age 11, goes to therapy, and learns to handle her own feelings. (full text)
When D. Morrison becomes depressed, her mother is unsympathetic and scornful. D. finds good therapists and learns not to make herself vulnerable to her mom and to accept her limits. (full text)
Robert's parents neglect and abuse him, and he's sent to a group home. Feeling unheard, he acts out until he receives love and attention from mentors, a therapist, and his grandmother. (full text)
The author, frustrated by abuse and unfairness, fights. After hitting a pregnant girl, she realizes she must stop and does, with the help of yoga, running, and therapy. (full text)
A therapist explains how abuse and neglect can lead to isolating behaviors like fighting, cutting, substance abuse as well as more abusive relationships. She also gives practical tips for quitting self-destructive habits. (full text)
Selena details how her socio-therapist gained her trust by listening to Selena, praising her, and not judging her for her past behaviors. (full text)
A former foster youth, now 28, shares his advice for healing and growing as an adult, including therapy, art-making, yoga, and positive friends. (full text)
The author is removed from her abusive mother at age 11, and starts therapy. It's good for several years, but as she grows up, she needs a therapist who's less parental. (full text)
Shateek feels alone in the world until he meets his therapist Fall. She shows interest in his writing and sports and listens to him, and he turns his life around. (full text)
Psychotherapist Russell Saunders explains how to heal from a parent's abuse or neglect, how to make boundaries with those parents, and what needs to happen before you can forgive them (full text)
Psychologist Sylvia Lester explains how to distance yourself from past abuse. (full text)
V.N. pinpoints five big problems she experienced in foster care. For each one, she offers suggestions for system change and suggestions for things youth can do. (full text)
Victor describes the methods he's used to control his anxiety and depression, including therapy, medication, exercise, and mindfulness. (full text)
The author is raised by a volatile and abusive mother. When she finds herself acting like her mother and screaming at her boyfriend, she is appalled. She gets therapy. (full text)
Robert describes how his therapist helped him face the pain from his father's abuse, neglect, and abandonment. She also helps Robert envision a better future. (full text)
Natasha interviews therapist Rebecca Weston about how to keep family trauma in your past from messing up your new relationships. (full text)
Lavell summons the courage to stand up to her abusers and later shares her experiences with a supportive therapist so she can begin healing. (full text)
After having suicidal thoughts and cutting herself, V.N. is committed to a psychiatric hospital, but she doesn't think she's crazy. Harming herself seems to help her escape the trauma of sexual abuse. (full text)
Trauma is an experience so upsetting that the mind cannot make sense of it. By learning to tell the story of your trauma through therapy, you can begin to put it behind you. (full text)
Therapy and trusting relationships with people can help teens manage stress and difficult emotions, and recover from childhood trauma. (full text)
Cynthia experiences panic attacks and dissociation, a foggy state where her mind separates from her body. A therapist helps her realize that these are defenses against trauma from the past, which she can now begin to face. (full text)
Dr. John DiLallo describes how psychotropic medications work, why they can be helpful, and also their limitations. (full text)
Due to a painful childhood, Erica suffers from bipolar and borderline personality disorder. She sabotages her therapy treatments -- until she becomes pregnant. Erica stepped it up in therapy so she can be a good mother. (full text)
A therapist explains why therapy is important, how it works, and why it can be better than talking to a friend or family member. (full text)
As a child, Natasha escaped into an imaginary world to deal with pain. Now she wonders if the habit has outworn its usefulness. (full text)
Aquellah works hard in therapy to release her inner child—the feelings and longings she was never allowed to express. (full text)
Natasha interviews a therapist to explain how therapy works and why it’s important for kids who’ve suffered trauma. (full text)
Andrew’s therapist helps him deal with his anger and sadness about not living with his family. (full text)
Maya has been in therapy for years, but has had a hard time finding a therapist she feels comfortable with. (full text)
La’Quesha learns about a kind of therapy, CBT, that helps people change their behavior by changing how they think about it. (full text)
Adrienne Williams-Myers, a licensed clinical social worker, explains how therapy can support families who are reunifying after foster care. (full text)
Diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, Erica learns to manage her emotions through therapy and medication. (full text)
Mayra is skeptical about participating in music therapy, but the program helps her express her feelings. (full text)
The writer, who is diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, had many therapists while in the system. She describes the two who helped her the most. (full text)
Gloria enjoys therapy until she’s switched to a therapist she doesn’t like and is put on medication that makes her feel like a “lab animal.” (full text)
A therapist describes the pros and cons of anti-depressant medication. (full text)
A psychiatrist talks about the pros and cons of medication and therapy. (full text)
When Samira is sent to a mental hospital she feels trapped, until a sympathetic social worker helps her open up. (full text)
At a youth shelter, the author gets connected with a good therapist who helps him release his anger over the abuse he suffered as a child. (full text)
V.M.'s father abandons the family and then berates V.M. for crying when his mother dies. V.M. learns how to be a better man by tuning into good role models and his own compassion. (full text)
Teasing drives the author away from her family and into a deep depression. She contemplates suicide, but therapy helps her begin to feel better. (full text)
The writer finds a supportive community at a day treatment center for depressed teens. (full text)
When Janelle returns home after three years in foster care, she finds it hard to readjust. Family therapy helps her and her mother build a new and better relationship. (full text)
Natasha connects with her latest therapist in a way she never managed in the past. (full text)
Megan has always been an obsessive thinker and worrier, but when her anxiety threatens her friendships, she consults a psychologist and begins to understand her anxieties. (full text)
Natasha asks a therapist to explain how anger from the past can affect your future. (full text)
Miguel describes the programs that have tried to help him manage his emotions, and explains what works and what doesn’t. (full text)
Alina suffers through a terrible depression, but she’s determined to fight back. A counselor and her family help her feel less alone. (full text)
After telling a counselor that she’s being abused, the writer is removed from her home and gets the help she needs to recover. (full text)
Psychologist Patti Feurereisen talks to Mimi about how to recover from the trauma of rape. (full text)
When the writer moves here from the Dominican Republic, she feels isolated. She misses her friends and grandmother. Kids make fun of her, and her mom neglects her. It takes a dramatic act to get her mom’s attention. (full text)
After her mother's death and her father's abandonment, the writer realizes she can't deal with her feelings of loss alone. She discovers therapy and learns "it's OK not to be OK." (full text)
Dr. Alexandra Barzvi, a psychologist at the New York University Child Study Center, explains how depression affects teens and how it can be treated. (full text)
Erica interviews psychiatrist Alvin Poussiant about why therapy has a bad name, especially among African-Americans. (full text)
Loneliness, stress, and depression lead Melissa to cut. Therapy and support from her mother and boyfriend help her control the fixation. (full text)
Gia’s been depressed all her life. In therapy, she learns to express her emotions and begins to emerge from her personal darkness. (full text)