Parenting a teen can be challenging

If you’re struggling to get along with your teenager, I see you!

It’s been said many times before that parenting is THE most challenging job in the world. Probably the most rewarding too, if we can see past the challenges and use them to benefit our own growth.

Not always easy, but worth it.

There are many reasons why parenting a teenager can be challenging.

I mean, aside from the fact that our society expects parents, in general, to do a spectacular job at the most important job in the world without giving us any guidance or training and to do it in total isolation …

As parents, we unknowingly bring our wounds from our childhood into the process; from the way we were parented and from the way we were treated by our environment.

Being a teen can be brutal. (Maybe you remember … LOL)

All you have to do is go back and reflect on your teenage years and ask yourself what was going on for you around the time of your child’s age to understand how hard it might be for your own child.

You’ll get a sense of what your teenager might need from you as the person they can count on most. And it just might be the exact opposite of what you received from your parents.

Chances are, most of your needs weren’t met. And while we tend to downplay how much that hurt us, some of those things might have been experienced as trauma.

Being bullied, struggling with body image and disordered eating, being dismissed and disrespected by teachers or our own parents, receiving no boundaries, or having too many rules …

It’s a long list.

And the amazing part? Your body recorded every single one of those traumas, whether you’re aware of it or not.

Somatic therapy could be a place for you to unpack the memories that are blocking your ability to see your child as the marvelous, brilliant, and capable person they are. This will allow you to support them in the exact way they need you to.