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If you’re thinking about starting your own counseling service, particularly for teens with depression, there are a few things to consider from the business angle before you jumpstart your entrepreneurial venture. Take some tips from us on what to do to get your practice off the ground:
Set Yourself Up Right: Make sure you’re logistically sound before you start accepting patients. This means using a service like smallbusiness.xo.com to get your technology needs straight. You don’t want to deal with website issues while you’re counseling a patient.
Get Some Experience: If you’ve never owned your own practice you’ll want to apprentice or intern for another doctor. Depending on what type of service you’d like to offer you’ll have to find out if there are any state certifications you need to be included in a counseling practice.
Get Referrals: Before you start you’ve got to have at least a couple of patients ready and waiting to be all yours. IF you do a good job they’ll recommend you and be sure to speak to schools and other types of counselors to get your name out there.

When you are choosing a great therapist for your teen, no matter what the issues are, and no matter what they are going to be discussing with the therapist, you have to find the right person. So, in choosing the therapist, you are going to want to consider their credentials, how many patients they have had, what their level of expertise is in the industry, and how long they have been in practice. You also want to consider Read more…

Support groups offer a wealth of information on teen depression. Members of support groups have personal experience dealing with depression in teens. And, they can offer their advice to help answer your questions. People seeking information on teen depression can discuss ways to help their teen cope, and, ways they can also cope with the disease.

Understanding depression and how it can effect a teen is the most important information support groups offer. They can give information on how to tell the difference between depression and acting out, which is common for teens. A group can alert you to the early signs and symptoms that signal a teen may have depression. They can tell you from their personal experiences how depression effected their teens’ school work, self esteem, and behavior. They can offer information on possible treatments and medicines. And, if a group is local, they can recommend doctors. Most of all, they can offer you and your teen support.

Support groups are located online, in schools, churches, or community organizations. If you have difficulty finding a group, your doctor, mental health agency, or school counselor can help you find a group with the information needed to support your recovery.

Teenagers experience different emotions than adults, but as adults, we have all been where teenagers are at some point or another. The one thing you don’t want to tell a teenager who is depressed about something is that everything will be okay. This is not true in all cases because everything might not be okay. Sometimes they lose a friend who is moving away and they won’t be able to see them again. Other times there are people who come into their life who break their heart. Read more…

There are many signs that you can look for in a depressed teen. Depressed teens usually show signs that alert parents and other people. Teens that show signs of sadness and hopelessness are definitely a big concern in teens, and parents should keep aware of that. Other signs that teens show when they are depressed are restlessness, agitation, feelings of worthlessness and guilt, fatigure or lack of energy, loss of interest in activities, and many more. Many parents do not Read more…

Has your once happy child turned into a moping, depressed teenager? Are you worried about how to deal with their sudden emotional turmoil, but lack the information necessary to get started? Do you want to help, but are not sure what needs to be done? If so, read this list of the most popular misconceptions about teen depression.

Misconception: It is the parents’ fault.
Parents often blame themselves when their children have issues. Of course, parental support and affection play a big role in a teenager’s emotional health, but parents are not the Read more…

There are so many myths regarding teen depression that serve only to hinder proper diagnosis and treatment of the illness that it some are mistaken for fact. Let’s take a look at some of the facts:

Myth: Teenagers are moody by nature, but they don’t actually suffer from depression. Only adults get depressed.
Fact: Depression is not a respecter of age, gender, social or financial status. While normal adolescent development can mask true depression, teens are also at risk for this devastating mental illness.

Myth: If a teenager is depressed, it’s just a phase. They’ll Read more…

Most teens who are depressed, and show signs of depression are different than what adults show. This raises concerns to many parents when teens begin to not act normal, compared to the ways that they use to act. One in eight teens suffer from depression. About 20 percent of teens will actually suffer from depression before they reach adulthood. There is a very small percentage of teens who suffer from seasonal depression which is usually during the winter months. Teen depression can affect a teen regardless of their sex, social backround, income level, race, or school. It doesn’t Read more…