Young adults often start therapy when they feel stuck in life. Some struggle with anxiety and feel they can’t start their first year of college. Some may struggle with depression and self-worth which impact their ability to achieve. Others finish college but have a difficult time landing a job or getting into grad school.
Being a young adult often includes struggling with a sense of purpose and direction. In this place of struggle, it’s easy for young adults to develop unhealthy habits.
These unhealthy habits include lack of exercise, video game addiction, and social isolation. These unhealthy habits can grow until they become depression, anxiety, panic attacks, or other struggles.
Once a young adult falls into any of these emotional struggles, they may have a hard time finding the drive to move forward.
As a counselor for young adults, I have found that many young adults lack the appropriate accountability. Accountability to many conjures up images of being challenged then punished for not following through with something.
Accountability should not be about punishment but responsibility and providing an account of one’s life choices. Some forms of accountability are harsh and punitive. These are never helpful. They lead to greater shame and defeat.
Healthy forms of accountability that produce change provide encouragement, support, empathy, and direction. Therapy for young adults provides an environment of healthy accountability
Three Elements of Healthy Accountability
1. Difficult Questions
A young adult therapist asks clients difficult questions. A counselor asks young adult clients what they have done to change their situation.
In Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), a change in behavior can lead to changes in one’s thoughts and emotions. Counselors ask clients which cognitive distortions they’ve struggled with. Cognitive distortions are all the irrational thoughts that distort one‘s reality.
Without accountability, it's challenging for young adults to change the way they think thus preventing a change in how they feel and behave. A young adult therapist can hold a client accountable by challenging their negative thinking.
2. Creating Goals
Young adult therapy is practical and solution-focused. The client and the therapist work on small goals each week.
The young adult may work on getting out of bed an hour earlier than the last week. The young adult may work on applying to a new job every day. A young adult may work on the goal of going to the gym three times a week.
A young adult therapist helps the client create the goal and asks them about their progress. This process of creating a goal and checking in helps keep the young adult accountable.
3. A Social Outlet
Young adults who feel stuck may have a tendency to isolate. Therapy can be one important means of socialization.
A young adult therapist works with clients to hone and develop their social skills. Clients build a relationship with their therapist that strengthens their self-esteem.
Therapy can also challenge young adults to open up and explore the reasons they may feel stuck. The accountability of therapy challenges clients to address the issues that are keeping them stuck in a very supportive and empathic way.
A young adult therapist is not a friend but a supportive coach. The therapist affirms the value of the client while also challenging the behaviors and attitudes that contribute to the client’s situation.
Young adults may find accountability uncomfortable at first. Yet, therapy is all about stepping outside one's comfort zone to do something different that will improve your quality of lie.
Over time young adults who experience progress often thank the therapist and acknowledge how important the accountability was for their growth and transformation.
Begin Therapy for Young Adults at Katy Teen & Family Counseling: Serving Young Adults in Katy, Tx
At our Katy, Tx location of Katy Teen and Family Counseling, our young adult counselors can help. The transition and life phase a young adult is in can be challenging. We can help you overcome those challenges and help you continue down the path of happy destiny.
If you are ready to start your healing journey at Katy Teen & Family Counseling, all you need to do is follow these three simple steps:
Contact Katy Teen & Family Counseling
Speak with one of our young adult therapists
Let us help you remove the barriers in your life to help you succeed as a young adult
Other Therapy & Counseling Services Offered at Katy Teen & Family Counseling: Serving Katy, Tx & Houston
At Katy Teen & Family Counseling, our young adult counselors can help. You don't need to struggle any longer. We have helped others like you seeking a happy, bright, and successful future realize that future.
At the Katy, Tx location of Katy Teen & Family Counseling, we also provide other teen therapy, young adult counseling, and family counseling services.
Below are a few of the other counseling services we provide for teens, families, and young adults in Katy, Tx and Houston:
Neurofeedback Therapy
Peak performance (optimal academic brain performance)
Peak performance (optimal athletic brain performance)
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR Therapy)
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
About the Author
Quique Autrey is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) and family therapist. He is a seasoned young adult therapist who has helped many overcome their struggles.
He also is a family systems therapist. He views each individual through that lens and provides therapy for the family system which includes: teen therapy, young adult counseling, family counseling, marriage counseling & couples therapy.
Quique has helped those who experience depression, anxiety, panic attacks, ADHD/ADD, and is trained in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).
Quique also has a passion for helping teens, young adults, and adults who may be on the Autism Spectrum. He has a talent for connecting with and helping people with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
If you're ready to start your healing journey in marriage counseling or couples therapy, you can call us at 346-202-4662 or email us at info@katyteenandfamilycounseling.com.
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