Having worked with many teenagers, not only through my counselling but also my workshops, and my work with KELY Support, I'm finding I really enjoy working with these young people and their families, who have oftentimes been referred to me by concerned teachers at various ESF and International Schools in the territory.
I feel I have many criteria that make me an idea helping agent for teenagers in Hong Kong, who either find themselves 'in trouble' or just confused or anxious, and in need someone to talk to.
Having grown up, and been to school out here, I understand the unique challenges that HK poses for teenagers.
Also having been somewhat of a troublesome teen myself, and now a qualified and experienced psychotherapist, I'm well aware of the challenges that school/parents/ life in general poses for teenagers, in what is no doubt one of the most difficult phases in a person’s life!
As a consultant to KELY Support I have enjoyed the privilege of working with these courageous and generous folks to help them further develop their wonderful conflict resolution and peer mediation programs which they use to reach out through their school visits and workshops to teenagers in the territory.
While I have found it very beneficial for teenagers to get private counselling, especially if they are encountering serious problems, some teens I feel benefit more from a group therapy atmosphere and the dynamics involved, not to mention it might be a more affordable long-term option.
I am currently setting up a new teen therapy group, please contact me for details.
If you are a teacher please feel free to consider me a resource for counselling referrals, talks/workshops and general advice.
If you are a teen, or a parent, and have more questions please feel free to contact me to talk further.
It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.
Alan Cohen
