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Sometimes teens will find it hard to cope with the changes that are happening during adolescent years. There are physical changes, emotional changes, and a lot of changes in your social life. Counseling can help you sort things out during this turbulent time in your life.

When should you consider counseling?
With all the things that are happening and will happen in a teenager's life, it's sometimes hard to draw the line and recognize when there's a problem that you can't really solve alone. Here are a few signs that it may be a good time to go see a counselor:

• Feelings of sadness, frustration, and loneliness. Especially if you can't really pinpoint why you're feeling that way.
• Feelings of anxiety and worry.
• Feelings of guilt.
• Feelings of anger, especially when you find it difficult to control how you express your anger or annoyance.
• Getting into trouble in school or at home.
• Drastic changes in your eating and sleeping pattern.
• Feeling like you don't want to talk to family and friends
• Being bullied in school.
• Losing interest in things that you used to enjoy, like your hobbies or hanging out with friends.

If you don't understand what's happening to you, that's alright. Sometimes it's hard to pinpoint what's wrong without the help of another person. The great thing about counseling is that anything you tell your counselor will be kept confidential except (and this is a very important thing to understand) when the counselor has reason to believe that you're at risk of hurting yourself or someone else.

Taking the First Step - Finding a Counselor
Once you've decided that you want to talk to a counselor, the next step is to find one. You can approach your parents and they can help you find one that's covered by your healthcare provider. You can ask your guidance counselor at school, get a referral from your community health center, ask your clergy, youth advisors, teachers, and more.

It's understandable if you feel a little scared of going to counseling, especially if it's your first time. It might help you if you knew what's going to happen so that you can set your expectations about it. When you go to counselling for troubled teens, you can expect to meet with one person for several times. This counselor will listen and not judge you. Counselors have a lot of experience talking to young people, and understands that it takes a bit of time before you can become comfortable enough to really talk.

Additionally, you can also do a few other things to help yourself out through a turbulent time. Talking to your parents/guardians could be a good start. It's also a good idea to keep a journal or any other similar way to express your feelings, like keep a sketchpad or write music. It could also help if you can get actively involved in productive activities like sports, performing arts, and similar activities while going through counseling.