In-person in Houston, online across Texas • In-network with Aetna, BCBS, Cigna, UHC/Optum, Tricare, Curative, Oscar • Therapy in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Farsi
Teens
Doctoral-Level Therapy for Teens in Houston, TX
Adolescents do not communicate as adults do. They speak through silence, sudden disclosure, irritability, the body, and what happens at school. Much of what they feel has not yet found language, and the clinician's task is to help that language arrive.
Therapy for teens at Real Talk is provided by licensed psychologists and postdoctoral fellows, in English and Spanish, in person in Houston and online across Texas. We take adolescents whose difficulties are not simple: the ones that show up in more than one setting, that have not responded to a first round of help, or that sit alongside a diagnosis the family is still absorbing. Care is in network with Aetna, BCBS, Cigna, UHC/Optum, Tricare, Curative, and Oscar, and we verify benefits before the first appointment.
We also see a small number of younger children. Write to us about your child and the clinical director will tell you whether we are the right setting.
How We Work With Teens
The work proceeds through talk that respects the privacy adolescence requires. We treat behavior as communication and try to understand what it is saying and to whom. A teenager who has difficulties at school, or who has gone quiet at home, needs help finding the words the behavior is standing in for.
Parents are part of the treatment. We meet with them at the beginning and at intervals, and we are candid about what we observe, including when the family situation is itself part of what the teen is carrying. The boundary between what is shared with parents and what stays in the session is set out at the start, but anything that concerns safety is always shared.
When a teen is already seeing a psychiatrist, or is returning to school after time away, a hospitalization, or a psychiatric program, we coordinate with other providers and, with the family's authorization, with the school, so that treatment does not run in parallel to the rest of the teen's care.
Presentations We See
Adolescent depression, which often presents as irritability, withdrawal, and a collapse in effort, not only sadness. Anxiety that presents as rigidity or physical complaint. School refusal and the standoff that grows around it at home. Behavioral difficulty at home or at school. Adolescents contending with identity, including gender and sexuality, and families struggling to accommodate it. The aftermath of family change, including divorce, relocation, and death. Teens returning to outpatient care after a hospitalization or a partial program. And adolescents whose neurodevelopmental differences, including autism, are part of the picture and need to be understood within the treatment.
What We Pay Attention To
We pay attention to what the symptom is doing within the family and to whom it is addressed. We attend to what the teen cannot say directly, to the developmental tasks that have been interrupted, and to the difference between an adolescent who is suffering and one who is in danger. And we listen for parental anxiety, which teenagers absorb, and for what the parents themselves were not given at that age.
Why Doctoral Training Matters for Teens: Specialized training matters most when a teen's difficulties appear across settings and have not responded to standard intervention, when behavior may be masking anxiety, trauma, or a mood disorder, when a diagnosis made elsewhere needs to be understood and treated, when neurodevelopmental differences such as autism are part of the presentation, when complex cases require coordination of care with other providers, and when the family system is itself in distress.
Therapy for Teens in Houston: Our Clinicians
Our clinical director reads every inquiry and recommends a clinician within minutes on weekdays, hours on weekends.
Questions About Therapy for Teens
What ages do you see?
Thirteen to nineteen. We also see a small number of younger children; write to us about your child and the clinical director will tell you whether we are the right setting or who is.
Will I know what my teen says in therapy?
You will know how the treatment is progressing and anything that concerns safety. The content of sessions is protected so that your teen can use them.
How are parents involved?
We meet with parents at the start and at intervals, and we are candid about what we see. Some adolescents need their parents close to the work; others need room to speak without them. We tell you which, and why.
Do you see teens after a hospitalization?
Yes. We take adolescents stepping down from inpatient or partial hospitalization, and we coordinate with the discharging team and the psychiatrist.
Do you prescribe medication?
No. When medication is part of the treatment, we coordinate with your teen's psychiatrist or pediatrician.
Do you diagnose ADHD or autism?
We work clinically with both. We do not conduct formal testing in teens.
Do your clinicians speak Spanish?
Yes, several of our clinicians who specialize in teens and children speak Spanish and can provide care in that language.
Reading For Deeper Thinking
Jonathan Haidt. End the Phone-Based Childhood Now.
The Atlantic, 2024. Read here.
David Robson. The Biggest Myths of the Teenage Brain.
BBC, 2022. Read here.
From Our Journal
Having a Child or Teen in Therapy: What Happens Next?
The Fear of Being Misunderstood.