Adolescence can be a challenging time in one’s life, especially now during the current circumstances we are facing as a country, many teenagers are particularly impacted.
Facing these difficult or complex emotional issues as children and adolescents makes them vulnerable given their lack of life experience and coping skills. Children may seem down, disappointed, or moody due to current events or missing important milestones during the school year – or now during the summer.
Symptoms of anxiety and depression can hinder adolescents’ ability to create or function within a positive, supportive family and social network, in turn exacerbating their symptoms. These symptoms also negatively impact their identity development, leading to poor self-esteem and low self-worth.
Adolescents with ADHD or Disruptive Behavior Disorders typically have difficulty with time management, poor social functioning, low academic achievement, and may also be irritable, impulsive, and hard to manage. There are obvious implications for the effects of these issues on an adolescent’s life, including reputations as unreliable students or friends, difficulty pursuing further education based on prior academic functioning, trouble with authority, and a lack of social support.
Addressing these challenges during a child’s critical developmental years can set the stage for a happier, healthier future.
When working with adolescent patients, psychologists at the Lukin Center strive to uphold the adolescent’s privacy while supporting the parent(s) and prioritizing the adolescent’s safety. We focus on four main issues that affect adolescents, including Anxiety, Depression, ADHD, and Disruptive Behavior Disorders, such as Oppositional Defiant Disorder and Conduct Disorder.
Psychologists intervene within a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) frame with the goal of helping adolescents learn about their psychological functioning to promote greater mental health. Psychologists focus on first identifying the associations between an adolescent’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, then addressing the maladaptive patterns, and providing psycho-education, feedback, and guidance to build stronger, healthier connections.
CBT techniques are also used to help adolescents improve their time-management, problem-solving, and social skills. In addition to the commonly used CBT techniques aimed to elucidate relationships between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, role-plays are often utilized to help adolescents practice interacting with peers or authority to improve interpersonal interaction.
We also work closely with the parents, providing psycho-education and parent management training to help parents regain a sense of balance in their relationships with their adolescents, supporting the parent(s)’ status while simultaneously promoting the adolescents’ autonomy.
Stay Connected,
Dr. Lukin
Lukin Center Psychotherapy Offers Tele-Therapy
To help support our community, we are offering a 15% discount for new patients that are interested in getting started with tele-health to help manage feelings of anxiety and isolation during this time.
Konstantin Lukin, Ph.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist in Ridgewood, Hoboken, NYC, Jersey City and Englewood. . He has extensive clinical and research experience spanning individuals of all ages, in both inpatient and outpatient settings. He specializes in men’s issues, couple’s counseling, and relationship problems. His therapeutic approach focuses on providing support and practical feedback to help patients effectively address personal challenges. He integrates complementary modalities and techniques to offer a personalized approach tailored to each patient. He has been trained in cognitive-behavioral, dialectical behavior, schema-focused, and emotionally focused therapy, and has also been involved with research projects throughout his career, including two National Institute of Mental Health-funded studies. He is a member of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, New Jersey Psychological Association, Northeast Counties Association of Psychologists, New York State Psychological Association, The International Centre for Excellence in Emotionally Focused Therapy, The New York Center for Emotionally Focused Therapy, the International OCD Foundation, the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science (ACSB) and a regular contributor to Psychology Today.