Young Adults

For this professional, our modern era presents two conflicting realities to young people:

1. Today is incredibly exciting as the information/technology age offers opportunities not dreamed of just twenty years ago.
2. Today is incredibly frightening for young people attempting to define a career, start a family, or drive home from the bar after having two beers.

Our confusing economic environment has delayed the emancipation from parents so we have a pandemic of twenty and thirty-somethings continuing to live at home, resulting in new problems for all generations.  Diversity is the new norm and the new much more broad-based definition of “normal” creates identity confusion.  Personal development becomes chronologically delayed.

The millenials generally present more broad-based substance abuse issues as a result and a more poorly defined work ethic.  Courtship and dating has degenerated into “hooking up”, and oral sex is trivialized as shaking hands. For generation z, serious mental health difficulty and suicide are off the charts.

My preferred medium for counseling is individual psychotherapy, which essentially is a personal exploration and growth process.  Two people, face to face, figuring things out and charting a course forward.  This is most exciting and fulfilling with young people who are often very confused but also energized by enthusiasm and potential.

Young people need to “individuate” or define for themselves their own psychological identity, and begin to achieve psychological emancipation from their family (even if they still reside in the family home).  This can most effectively be accomplished if the young person is not seriously in love with a romantic partner, and either way relationship issues need to be explored.  Career definition and development are more complicated and crucial than ever and need to be a cornerstone of a counseling process with a young adult.  I have specialized training and experience in this area.