Seek help if:
- Symptoms last more than two weeks
- Daily life feels unmanageable
- You have thoughts of harming yourself or your baby
- You feel anxious, panicked, or scared most of the day
- Immediate help: Call 911 if you feel you or someone else is in danger.
Other ways to cope:
- Talk to your doctor or OB-GYN—they can screen for postpartum depression and anxiety.
- Connect with a psychotherapist for guidance and coping strategies.
- Share your feelings with trusted family or friends.
- Practice self-care: rest, eat well, and accept help.
- Join support groups for new parents.
Teen and Adolescent Therapy in Newmarket & York Region | A Space That Is Actually Theirs
Adolescence is one of the most demanding periods of a person’s life. The academic pressure, the social complexity, the identity questions, the family tensions, the constant comparison that social media makes inescapable. And underneath all of it, the expectation that teenagers should somehow manage all of this without much support, because they are young and resilient and it will pass.
Sometimes it does not pass. Sometimes what looks like teenage moodiness is anxiety that has been building for years. Sometimes what looks like laziness is depression. Sometimes what looks like defiance is a young person who is overwhelmed and does not have the words for it yet.
As a Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) in Newmarket with a background in child development and early childhood education, I offer individual therapy for teens and adolescents virtually across Ontario. I use CBT, ACT, somatic nervous system work, mindfulness-based approaches, Behavioural Activation, psychoeducation, and play-based approaches tailored to each young person’s specific needs. No waitlist. Sessions available day and evening.
No Waitlist
Start this week.
Free 15-min call
No commitment
Day & Evening
Flexible hours
Virtual
All of Ontario
What Brings Teens to Therapy
Teens rarely arrive at therapy using clinical language. They usually arrive because something is not working, something feels too heavy, or a parent has noticed something that the teen themselves may not yet have words for.
If any of that sounds familiar, you’re in the right place.
“I cannot stop worrying about everything.”
“I do not want to go to school anymore.”
“I do not know who I am.”
“Everything feels pointless.”
“I feel like nobody actually gets me.”
“I keep losing it over small things and I do not know why.”
All of these are valid reasons to reach out. Therapy is not reserved for crisis. It is available for any young person who is struggling and would benefit from a space that is genuinely theirs, where they do not have to manage anyone else’s feelings about what they share.
Common signs that a teen may benefit from therapy include:
- Persistent anxiety, worry, or fear that interferes with daily life
- Low mood, withdrawal, or loss of interest in things they used to enjoy
- Significant changes in sleep, appetite, or energy
- Declining academic performance or school refusal
- Increased irritability, anger, or emotional outbursts
- Difficulty with peer relationships or social withdrawal
- Struggles with self-esteem, identity, or a negative self-image
- Self-harm or thoughts of self-harm
- A history of trauma that is affecting current functioning
- ADHD-related difficulties with attention, impulsivity, or emotional regulation
What I Work With in Teen Therapy
Anxiety in Teens
Anxiety is the most common presenting issue in adolescent therapy. Academic pressure, social comparison, uncertainty about the future, and the developmental demands of identity formation all create fertile ground for anxiety to take hold and grow. I work with generalised anxiety, social anxiety, panic, and the specific anxiety patterns that develop around school performance and social relationships.
Depression in Teens
Teenage depression frequently looks different from adult depression. It often presents as irritability rather than sadness, as withdrawal from activities rather than visible distress, and as a flatness that parents sometimes mistake for typical teenage disengagement. Early intervention matters. The longer depression goes unaddressed in adolescence, the more deeply it can affect identity formation, relationships, and academic trajectory.
Academic Stress and Pressure
The pressure on teenagers in York Region schools, particularly in the context of university applications and parental expectations, can be genuinely overwhelming. Therapy helps young people develop a healthier relationship with performance and failure, build sustainable study habits, and manage the anxiety that academic pressure produces without suppressing the ambition that drives them.
Social Anxiety and Peer Relationships
The social world of adolescence is intense and unforgiving, and social anxiety can make it feel completely impossible. Fear of judgment, avoidance of social situations, difficulty making or keeping friendships, and the particular pain of feeling excluded or misunderstood are all presentations I work with regularly.
Identity and Self-Esteem
Adolescence is the developmental period where identity is actively being constructed. That process is inherently uncomfortable, and for many young people it is also destabilising. Therapy provides a space to explore questions of identity, values, and self-worth without judgment, and to build a sense of self that is not entirely dependent on external validation.
Family Conflict
Tension between teenagers and their parents is developmentally normal, but it can reach a level where it is significantly affecting everyone’s wellbeing. I work with teens on their experience of family conflict, and where appropriate involve parents in the process so that the family system as a whole can shift, not just the individual.
Trauma in Teens
Traumatic experiences during adolescence, including accidents, loss, abuse, witnessing violence, or relational trauma, can have a significant and lasting impact on development, identity, and functioning. Trauma-informed therapy for teens is careful, paced, and built around safety and trust before any deeper processing work begins. If trauma is part of your teenager’s experience, trauma therapy in Newmarket covers how I approach trauma treatment in more detail.
ADHD in Teens
The executive function demands of high school make adolescence one of the most difficult periods for a teenager with ADHD. Disorganisation, procrastination, emotional dysregulation, and the social consequences of impulsivity can create significant difficulties across every area of a teenager’s life. Therapy addresses both the practical challenges of ADHD and the emotional impact of navigating a school system that is not designed for a neurodivergent brain. For more detail on how I approach ADHD specifically, ADHD therapy in Newmarket covers that work in full.
Self-Harm and Emotional Dysregulation
Self-harm in teenagers is most commonly a coping mechanism for overwhelming emotional pain, not an attention-seeking behaviour. It is a sign that a young person is in distress and does not yet have more effective tools for managing that distress. Therapy addresses the underlying emotional pain, builds healthier coping skills, and works toward a life where self-harm is no longer necessary. This is sensitive, careful work and it is work I take seriously.
How I Work With Teens
Teen therapy in my practice looks different from adult therapy in several important ways. Young people communicate differently, engage differently, and need a therapeutic environment that meets them where they are rather than expecting them to adapt to a format designed for adults.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
CBT for teens focuses on identifying the thought patterns and behavioural habits that are driving anxiety, depression, or other difficulties, and building practical skills for changing them. With teenagers I use a more collaborative, skills-focused version of CBT that emphasises tools they can actually use in their daily life at school, at home, and in relationships.
Somatic Awareness and Nervous System Regulation
Teenagers often experience their emotional difficulties primarily as physical sensations, the tight chest of anxiety, the heaviness of depression, the heat of anger, without having language for what those sensations mean or how to work with them. Somatic approaches help young people develop body awareness and regulation skills that work at the physiological level, not just the cognitive one.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
ACT is particularly well suited to adolescents because it does not require teenagers to think positively or suppress difficult emotions. Instead it teaches them to hold difficult thoughts and feelings without being controlled by them, and to take action toward what matters to them even when things are hard. For teenagers navigating identity questions and values development, ACT provides a particularly useful framework.
Mindfulness-Based Therapy
Short, accessible mindfulness practices help teenagers develop present-moment awareness and interrupt the rumination, worry, and reactivity cycles that drive many adolescent mental health difficulties. I adapt mindfulness approaches specifically for young people, keeping them brief, practical, and relevant to the actual situations teenagers face.
Behavioural Activation
For teens struggling with depression and withdrawal, Behavioural Activation provides a structured approach to gradually reengaging with activities that provide pleasure, connection, and a sense of accomplishment. It works with the reality of low motivation rather than waiting for motivation to return before taking action.
Psychoeducation
Understanding what is happening in their own mind and body is often powerfully validating for teenagers who have been told they are overreacting, being dramatic, or need to toughen up. Psychoeducation gives young people accurate language for their experience and helps them understand that what they are going through is real, understandable, and changeable.
Play-Based Approaches
For younger adolescents and children, creative and play-based approaches provide a way into emotional material that verbal therapy alone cannot always access. Drawing, creative expression, and structured play activities can help young people explore and communicate experiences that they do not yet have words for.
Most clients begin to notice a real shift within 8 to 12 sessions. I check in on your progress regularly, and I adjust the approach as your needs change.
How I Involve Parents
Parent involvement in teen therapy is flexible and depends on what each young person needs. I take a collaborative approach that can include any combination of the following, depending on the situation:
Sessions with the teenager individually, where confidentiality is maintained and the teen has a space that is genuinely their own. This is the foundation of almost all teen therapy work.
Separate consultations with parents, where I can provide psychoeducation, discuss how to support their teenager at home, and answer questions without compromising the teenager’s confidentiality.
Joint sessions with both the teenager and their parents, where family communication, conflict, or relationship repair is a specific goal of the therapy.
The balance of individual and parent-involved sessions is something we discuss openly at the start and revisit as the work evolves. The teenager’s trust is the most important clinical asset in this work, and everything about how parents are involved is designed to protect that.
What to Expect When We Work Together
The first session with a teenager is 50 minutes and focuses on getting to know them, not their diagnosis or their parents’ concerns, but who they are, what matters to them, and what they most want to change. Many teenagers arrive at therapy reluctantly, at their parents’ suggestion, and that is completely fine. There is no pressure to perform readiness or to want to be there.
From session two onward, sessions are shaped around what each young person needs. Some teenagers want practical tools and strategies. Others want a space to talk. Most want both, at different times. I follow their lead while maintaining enough structure to make the sessions productive.
Teen Therapy with Maria | School Counselling Only | No Support | |
Individual confidential sessions | ✓ | Partial | ✗ |
Specialised clinical training | ✓ | Varies | ✗ |
Parent involvement where helpful | ✓ | Varies | ✗ |
Treats anxiety, depression and trauma | ✓ | Partial | ✗ |
No waitlist | ✓ | Often long | N/A |
Virtual across Ontario | ✓ | No | N/A |
Extended benefits coverage | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
You've been managing this long enough.
Let's actually change it.
No waitlist. Most clients start within the same week as their consultation call.
- Sessions from $120
- Extended benefits accepted
- In-person & virtual
- Day & evening hours
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know before booking your first session.
How much does teen therapy cost in Newmarket?
Sessions are $120 per 50-minute appointment. Many extended health benefit plans in Ontario cover sessions with a Registered Psychotherapist. A receipt is provided after every session for direct submission to your insurer. Check your plan under “Registered Psychotherapist (RP)” or “Psychotherapy.”
My teenager does not want to come to therapy. What do I do?
This is one of the most common questions I hear from parents. A teenager who is reluctant to attend therapy is not unusual, and it does not mean therapy will not work. I encourage parents to be honest with their teenager about why they are suggesting therapy, to give them some agency over the process where possible, such as choosing the therapist or the session time, and to frame therapy as a resource rather than a punishment. A free 15-minute consultation call can sometimes help a reluctant teenager understand what therapy actually involves before committing to it.
Will you tell my parents what my teenager says in sessions?
Confidentiality is explained clearly at the start of therapy and is maintained with all teenage clients, with specific exceptions: if a teenager discloses that they are in immediate danger of harming themselves or others, that information must be shared with parents or appropriate services. Everything else remains confidential. That clarity is what makes the therapeutic relationship safe enough to be useful.
How many sessions will my teenager need?
This depends on what brings them to therapy and how complex the presentation is. Many teenagers see meaningful improvement within 10 to 16 sessions. More complex presentations, particularly those involving trauma, self-harm, or long-standing depression, typically benefit from longer term work. I discuss realistic expectations at the assessment stage and review progress regularly.
Do you offer virtual teen therapy in Ontario?
Yes. Virtual sessions are available to teenagers anywhere in Ontario. Many young people actually find virtual therapy more accessible and less intimidating than attending a physical office.
Is there a waitlist?
No. There is currently no waitlist. You can book a free 15-minute consultation and typically begin the first full session within the same week.