Christian Counseling For Teens Archives | Plano Christian Counseling

Finding Support to Help Troubled Teens in Texas

Finding Support to Help Troubled Teens in Texas

Hannah Parks, Kate Motaung2025-09-24T05:56:28+00:00September 24th, 2025|Christian Counseling For Teens, Family Counseling, Featured, Individual Counseling|

If you’re raising or taking care of a teen, one of the fears that you may have is that your teen will become a statistic. Usually, that’s meant negatively, whether it’s numbering among teens who drop out of school, teens who get involved with sex or drugs, or teens who turn to crime. The specter of these possible futures frightens parents and caregivers, and it can lead to dysfunctional parenting. The reality is that some teens do find themselves in trouble. A parent or caregiver’s responsibility is to steward this young life, this precious gift from the Lord, and to try to nurture them and set them on the path they should pursue. Part of discharging this responsibility is setting healthy patterns in place, as well as being able to identify when a child is in trouble and needs support. It’s important to know how to deal with your teen, and that includes knowing how to meaningfully support them when they are a troubled teen. What is a troubled teen? The term “troubled teen” is not a clinical term by any means, and it can conjure a variety of images that may be inspired by popular culture. A troubled teen can come in different guises, which means a parent or caregiver needs to be alert and discerning. It can be easy to miss the signs of trouble if you’re looking in the wrong places. The adolescent years mark a deeply transformative and impactful stage of life, characterized by significant emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual growth. They are becoming the people they will likely be for the rest of their lives. That’s huge, and as you can imagine, for some teens, these vast changes can be overwhelming. These changes, or other life experiences, may lead to them becoming what’s known [...]

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Social Media and Body Image: Back to School Edition

Social Media and Body Image: Back to School Edition

Melissa Plantz2025-09-08T06:24:27+00:00September 8th, 2025|Christian Counseling for Children, Christian Counseling For Teens, Family Counseling, Featured, Individual Counseling, Personal Development|

Back to school is a time when many families are ready for a fresh start. There is so much hope for the future, excitement, and maybe a little bit of anxiety. But for some children, their body image impacts how they will interact with others and pursue their goals. How we perceive our bodies affects how we behave and the beliefs that we hold onto. Social media and body image play critical roles in how a child views themselves. The Effects of Social Media and Body Image on Kids The effects of social media and body image on children can last a lifetime. Children, as young as grade school, begin to notice society’s ideal image of what someone should look like to be pretty, handsome, cool, or successful. They start their quest to fulfill what they believe everyone wants. Comparison Children who spend time on social media may begin to compare their own bodies to those of their peers and celebrities, not understanding how unrealistic many of these images are after being airbrushed and filtered. Body Dysmorphia Body dysmorphia is an excessive worry about how one looks. It is an obsession with perceived flaws. This obsession can interfere with a child’s daily activities and socialization. Eating Disorders Eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia, are fatal if left untreated. They cause severe physical illness. Binge eating is another eating disorder that can develop in some children, especially if they use food as a coping mechanism. Increased Risk for Depression and Anxiety Too much time scrolling social media and worrying about body image can increase depression and anxiety in both adults and children. Parents and educators should stay informed about social media and body image, and be willing to celebrate each child’s uniqueness until that child embraces a positive [...]

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More Than Schoolwork: Dealing with Today’s Teen Issues

More Than Schoolwork: Dealing with Today’s Teen Issues

Sarah Harris, Kate Motaung2025-08-13T07:04:14+00:00August 13th, 2025|Christian Counseling For Teens, Featured, Individual Counseling|

As adults, most people can agree that the teen years were tumultuous. This is when teens seek independence, yet they still rely on their parents (and desperately need them). Part child, part adult, these older children are planning their future, looking for part-time after-school jobs, and have few bills to pay, if any. Although they may not have a mortgage or a car payment, teens face challenges. Some of these teen issues are the same ones young people have experienced since the beginning of time. Other difficulties stem from today’s technology. Being aware of what teen issues your teenager will face can help prepare them for an easier transition into adulthood. Dealing with Teen Issues Faced by Teenagers Today Substance Abuse The National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics states that the percentage of drug use by eighth graders grew by 61% from 2016 to 2020. About half of teenagers have misused drugs, according to the same organization. It seems unbelievable that children are introduced to drugs at such a young age, but there are cases where children are even younger, misusing drugs in early middle school. Not all of these involve illicit drug use. Teens usually have easy access to parents’ and grandparents’ medications, as they are no longer little children, and you may not feel the need to hide these prescriptions. Sometimes, out of curiosity or stress, the teen will take the pills. Unfortunately, no medication is entirely safe without side effects. Drugs taken by someone who does not need the meds or takes too much can easily overdose. Some prescription medications are also controlled substances and are highly addictive. If you suspect your teen is abusing medications or other drugs, reach out for help right away. Peer Pressure Peer pressure seems to be as old as time (Adam [...]

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Social Media and Teens: Helping Your Teen Thrive Online

Social Media and Teens: Helping Your Teen Thrive Online

Sarah Harris, Kate Motaung2025-09-27T13:02:44+00:00July 22nd, 2025|Christian Counseling For Teens, Coaching, Family Counseling, Featured, Individual Counseling|

People are highly adaptable creatures, but in other ways, we can become tied to our habits and find it hard to do anything different. There was a time, not that long ago, when getting to meet other people and exchange ideas was something you did largely in person. The world has changed quite rapidly, and now a person’s online presence can be more impactful than what they do in real life, away from their keyboards and social media handles. For teens who don’t know life apart from social media, a person’s online presence carries a lot more significance than what it does for people who are casual or non-users. If you’re the parent or caregiver of a teen, you must teach yourself about social media so you can help your teen navigate the joys and perils of social media. Social Media and Teens: It’s a Thing It should be said from the outset that teens are by no means monolithic. They don’t all enjoy the same things, so they can’t be easily pigeonholed. Broadly speaking, for teens, because of how tech-savvy they tend to be, and because they’re at the stage of life where they are experimenting, learning, being creative, pushing boundaries, and testing the edges of what’s acceptable, social media is a place where these things can be given full vent. Love it or hate it, social media has become an important part of our lives. Social media has become the new town square where people meet to share and debate ideas. Those debates aren’t always civil or informative, but there you have it. Social media is a place for connecting with others, building community, and a sense of belonging. Additionally, social media provides people with space to express themselves, creatively and otherwise. Now, at the push of [...]

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Bipolar in Teens: How to Know The Signs

Bipolar in Teens: How to Know The Signs

Sarah Harris, Kate Motaung2025-09-27T13:06:49+00:00June 13th, 2025|Bipolar Disorder, Christian Counseling For Teens, Featured, Individual Counseling|

Does your teen have dramatic mood swings that cycle between periods of extreme highs and periods of extreme lows? Are they causing noticeable changes in the way they normally think or act? It could be a sign of bipolar disorder. Bipolar in Teens Bipolar disorder, formerly known as manic depression, is a mental illness that causes extreme shifts in mood, energy level, and behavior. It is characterized by manic episodes during which your teen seems happier than usual, is extremely energetic, and needs little sleep. Those contrast with episodes of depression in which your teen feels sad, apathetic, and fatigued. These episodes may last for one to two weeks or longer, interfere with your teen’s ability to perform daily tasks and disrupt his or her quality of life. Bipolar disorder can appear at any age, but most commonly develops during adolescence. Often it remains undiagnosed because the fluctuating moods are attributed to the normal ups and downs associated with teenage hormones. Early Warning Signs of Bipolar Disorder in Teens Following are some red flags that should not be ignored. If you recognize several of these changes in your teen’s usual mood and behavior, it is important to follow up with a licensed mental health professional experienced in treating bipolar in teens. Bipolar in teens is highly treatable and manageable. The earlier the intervention starts, the better the outcome will be. Common signs of a manic episode. During a manic episode, your teen may feel wired and euphoric and have an inflated sense of self-esteem, grandiosity, and power. Feeling invincible, your teen might exhibit poor judgment, act impulsively, and engage in risky behaviors. Likewise, they may experience racing thoughts and trouble concentrating, talk fast, or jump from topic to unrelated topic. You may notice that your child is more irritable than [...]

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5 Things You Need to Know About Eating Disorders

5 Things You Need to Know About Eating Disorders

Sarah Harris2025-05-03T05:51:20+00:00May 2nd, 2025|Christian Counseling For Teens, Eating Disorders, Featured, Individual Counseling|

If you just go with movies, television, and other media, you will come away with an odd mix of accurate and bizarre ideas about eating disorders. In those spaces, facts are often subordinated to storytelling or plain old sensationalism. It is no surprise then that many people don’t understand what eating disorders are, what causes them, who suffers from them, and how one can recover from them. 5 Things to Know About Eating Disorders Here are five essential things you need to know about eating disorders. Eating disorders are a type of mental health issue As we will note here and later, eating disorders are not some kind of fad or lifestyle choice that someone decides “to get in on.” They are not simply about food but are instead complex mental health problems that a person tries to remedy through the coping or control mechanism of food. Eating disorders are both psychological and medical (or physical) in nature, which adds to their complexity. There are powerful emotions, behaviors, and attitudes that someone with an eating disorder has around food and weight issues. The DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition) recognizes around 8 categories of eating and feeding disorders. The remedy for eating disorders is not simply about “snapping out of it” or powering through it but getting the help of professionals and others around you to walk with you on the journey. Anyone can suffer from an eating disorder One of the widespread myths about eating disorders is that only some people get them. Around 30 million Americans of all ages, genders, or ethnicities will suffer from an eating disorder at one point or another in their lives. Eating disorders do not discriminate. Anyone can develop an eating disorder, regardless of their age, gender, ethnicity, [...]

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How to Navigate the Complex Waters of Divorce and Children

How to Navigate the Complex Waters of Divorce and Children

Bryan Ferguson, Kate Motaung2025-03-21T08:19:38+00:00March 13th, 2025|Christian Counseling for Children, Christian Counseling For Teens, Family Counseling, Featured, Individual Counseling, Relationship Issues|

Choosing to share the rest of your life with a person has a profound impact on the rest of your life. When a person gets married, they don’t know exactly what will come their way because life can be unpredictable. Ending a marriage is a big decision, and it can be one of the most painful decisions a person makes in their life. This pain is magnified when divorce and children mix. Dealing With Divorce as an Adult Getting divorced is complicated on several levels. This includes the social, legal, and moral dimensions and implications of the decision. When a person gets divorced, there is a lot they work through to get to that point, but beyond divorce lies other questions, feelings, and thoughts that need to be unpacked. Plano Christian Counseling can help individuals navigate these challenges with faith-based support and guidance. Dealing with a divorce in a healthy way requires several things. Take time to heal Marriage joins two people, two lives, together into one. When a man and woman are joined together in marriage, the two become “one flesh”, and they share life. (Genesis 2:24-25, Matthew 19: 4-6) God’s intention is for people to persist in this state of unity. If that unity is broken through a divorce, it is like tearing off a piece of yourself. Your marriage may have been a difficult one, and divorce opened up new vistas, but you should still take the time to heal. Getting a divorce brings an important part of your life to an end. With that is dealing with the absence and loss of a person to whom you had significant emotional and physical ties. Sometimes, what needs to be mourned is the loss of a dream and of the potential your relationship had. That includes the [...]

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How to Cultivate a Positive Body Image In Our Social Media Age

How to Cultivate a Positive Body Image In Our Social Media Age

Sarah Harris, Kate Motaung2025-03-22T05:54:38+00:00February 27th, 2025|Christian Counseling For Teens, Featured, Individual Counseling, Women’s Issues|

Some people are comfortable with who they are, especially when it comes to their bodies. When you gaze at yourself in the mirror, do you like what you see? As winter draws to a close and the summer months set in, do you feel comfortable as you shed those heavy coats and snow boots for t-shirts, shorts, and pool/beach wear? If there’s a camera around, do you feel comfortable and confident to have your picture taken? Our bodies are always with us, and we can have a positive relationship with them or we can have a negative relationship. What shapes our relationship with our bodies, and can it have a negative effect on our overall well-being? Understanding issues about body image is important, particularly when we are constantly bombarded with images that keep us hyperaware and hyper-focused on the bodies of others as well as our own. Definitions The American Psychological Association (APA) describes body image as the mental picture a person forms of their body as a whole, including its physical characteristics and one’s attitudes toward these characteristics. Your body image is how you see your body, how you feel about your body, and the thoughts that come to mind when you’re considering your body. Plano Christian Counseling offers faith-based guidance to help individuals develop a healthy and positive body image. You could also say that your body image is the self-talk that you engage in about your body, a sort of ongoing dialogue with yourself. This complex dialogue can also include other people, as you express your feelings and perceptions about your bodies with other people such as your friends or even a stranger helping you find the right size of an article of clothing. We all have thoughts about our bodies and feelings we associate with [...]

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A Life Lived Online: Adolescents and Social Media

A Life Lived Online: Adolescents and Social Media

Sarah Harris, Kate Motaung2025-03-25T16:32:02+00:00December 6th, 2024|Christian Counseling For Teens, Coaching, Family Counseling, Featured|

When we’re feeling nostalgic, it’s tempting to say that things were simpler, better, or easier in the past. Often, parents of adolescents find themselves saying this as they consider the brave new world their children are navigating and trying to make sense of. It can be scary, and nostalgia can be a form of retreat. There’s nothing wrong with nostalgia; however, it can paralyze you in the present or blind you from seeing the beauty and opportunities that exist in the present. When it comes to social media, many folks would rather things were simpler for their own sake or for the sake of their kids. There are some good reasons for this, but a more productive approach is to gain a better understanding of how to make the best use of these tools. Plano Christian Counseling can help you navigate the challenges of social media with faith-based guidance, so you and your family can engage with it in a healthy and balanced way. The Various Uses of Social Media Social media is a relatively young invention. Throughout the last few decades, there have been different iterations of the same idea of connecting human beings to each other and giving them a platform to share themselves and what they care about. We are deeply social creatures, which was by God’s design. As the internet has created a space to share ideas across the globe, social media has grown apace to meet that need. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way, you will fulfill the law of Christ. – Galatians 6:2 Depending on the platform, the intention behind many social media applications is for individuals to be able to share whatever they find interesting, and for other people to interact with what’s been shared. It’s taking what we do [...]

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Teaching Your Children Safe and Healthy Ways to Use Social Media Platforms

Teaching Your Children Safe and Healthy Ways to Use Social Media Platforms

Kate Motaung2025-03-27T09:22:19+00:00August 8th, 2024|Christian Counseling for Children, Christian Counseling For Teens, Family Counseling, Featured|

Parenting has always been a daunting task, but with the advent of social media platforms and hyper-connectivity changing the social landscape, parental guidelines are getting even blurrier. It has become imperative for parents to be vigilant regarding the challenges the younger generation faces each day online. Knowing the amount of time your child spends on social media According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, kids ages eight to eighteen spend, on average, a whopping seven and a half hours on a screen for entertainment each day, four and a half hours of which are spent watching TV. Over the course of a year, that adds up to 114 full days watching a screen for fun. Plano Christian Counseling can help families find balance, set healthy boundaries, and cultivate meaningful, screen-free connections rooted in faith and intentional living. In effect, this means that children spend almost half of their waking hours each year engaged in online activities. Networks like TikTok, X, Snapchat, Pinterest, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook are designed not only to grab your attention but also to maintain your continued interest. In these first few months of 2024, the American government has been up-in-arms with TikTok over its controversial new TikTok-Lite promotional incentive that seeks to reward its users with gift packs for spending more time on the site. That means people will be paid to spend more time online, with potentially catastrophic consequences for their mental health. Children spending even more time on leading social media platforms like TikTok means the problems caused by excessive use of the internet are only exacerbated. How social media platforms can endanger children’s well-being In this day and age, the long-held moral stance of simply forbidding kids from socially immoral places to keep them safe is no longer enough to [...]

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