Teen Therapy and Family Counseling in Silver Lake, Los Angeles | David Strah
Something has shifted. Maybe your teenager has gone quiet in a way that worries you. Maybe there’s more conflict at home than anyone can manage. Maybe your teen is struggling at school, pulling away from friends, or you’ve noticed signs of anxiety or depression that aren’t getting better on their own.
You don’t have to wait until things get worse to get support.
At David Strah, we provide teen therapy and family counseling in Silver Lake for adolescents and families who are ready to do something about what’s happening. Our licensed therapists work with teenagers aged 13 to 17, young adults aged 18 to 25, and families navigating the hard stuff together. In-person at our Silver Lake office or online throughout California.
Why Teen Therapy Is Different From Adult Therapy
This part matters. Adolescents aren’t just small adults. They think differently, process emotion differently, and need a therapeutic approach that actually fits who they are at this stage of life.
A therapist who works primarily with adults may not have the training or experience to connect with a 15-year-old navigating social media pressure, identity questions, academic burnout, and family tension all at once. That’s a specific kind of work, and it requires specific skills.
Our therapists specialize in adolescent mental health. They know how to build trust with teens who are skeptical of therapy. They know when to be direct, when to follow the teen’s lead, and how to use evidence-based methods that actually work for this age group. They also know how to involve parents in a way that helps rather than backfires.
Honestly, the relationship between a teen and their therapist is everything. If your teenager doesn’t feel safe in the room, no technique in the world will help. That’s why fit matters as much as credentials.
What We Help Teens With
Teenagers come to us for all kinds of reasons. Some are in real distress. Others are struggling in ways that don’t look dramatic from the outside but are grinding them down quietly. Both are worth addressing.
Here are the things we see most often in our Silver Lake practice:
Anxiety and constant worry. Worrying about school performance, friendships, the future, or things that are hard to name. Physical symptoms like headaches, stomachaches, or trouble sleeping often show up here too.
Depression and low mood. Withdrawal from people and activities they used to enjoy. A flatness or sadness that’s been hanging around longer than a bad week.
Academic stress and burnout. LA is a high-pressure environment for kids. The expectations from schools, parents, and peers can add up fast. When a teen hits a wall, it’s not laziness. It’s often exhaustion.
Social difficulties and isolation. Trouble making or keeping friendships. Being on the outside. Bullying, online or in person. The loneliness that comes from not fitting in the way everyone seems to expect you to.
Identity and self-esteem. Figuring out who you are is genuinely hard work. Questions around identity, gender, sexuality, and belonging deserve a therapist who takes them seriously.
LGBTQ+ identity and support. We’re a fully affirming practice. Every teenager deserves to feel safe being themselves in the therapy room.
Self-harm and emotional dysregulation. Big, overwhelming emotions that come fast and are hard to manage. Sometimes this shows up as cutting, sometimes as explosive reactions, sometimes as complete shutdown.
Trauma and PTSD. Past experiences that are still affecting everyday life. This might be a single event or something that happened over time.
Grief. Loss of a person, a relationship, a sense of normalcy. Grief in teenagers often looks different than in adults, and it can be easy to miss.
Eating and body image concerns. Complicated relationships with food, weight, or appearance that go beyond typical teenage self-consciousness.
Substance use. Early concerns about marijuana, alcohol, or other substances that a teenager or a parent has noticed.
How Family Therapy Works
Family therapy isn’t about blaming anyone. It’s about looking at the patterns inside a family system and figuring out what’s driving them.
Think about it this way: a teenager’s behavior rarely happens in isolation. It shows up inside a family context, and that context is worth understanding. Sometimes the whole family is dealing with something hard together, like a divorce, a loss, or a major change. Sometimes the parent-child relationship has broken down to the point where communication feels impossible. Sometimes a family needs a neutral space where everyone can actually be heard.
Family sessions at David Strah can involve the full household, just parents and teens together, or separate sessions with individual family members alongside joint meetings. Your therapist will work out the right structure with you, based on what’s actually going on and what the goals are.
Common things families bring to us include:
- Parent-child communication that has broken down completely
- Conflict over rules, boundaries, and independence
- The impact of divorce or separation on teenagers
- Blended family adjustment and stepparent dynamics
- Sibling conflict that’s become more than normal
- A family dealing with grief, illness, or crisis together
- Co-parenting disagreements that are affecting the kids
- Multigenerational family patterns that keep repeating
Our Approach to Teen and Family Therapy
No single approach works for every teenager or family. Our therapists are trained across multiple evidence-based methods and use what actually fits each situation.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT is one of the most researched approaches for teen anxiety, depression, and stress. It works by helping teenagers identify the thinking patterns that are feeding their struggles and practice doing things differently. It’s practical and tends to show results. We often use it alongside other approaches.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
DBT was originally developed for people with intense emotions who struggle to manage them. It’s now widely used with teens dealing with self-harm, emotional dysregulation, and impulsivity. It teaches concrete skills in four areas: mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness. For teenagers who feel things very intensely, it can be genuinely life-changing.
Trauma-Informed Care and EMDR
When a teenager has experienced something traumatic, standard talk therapy isn’t always enough. Trauma-informed approaches recognize how past experiences live in the body and nervous system, not just in the mind. EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a structured, evidence-based method for processing traumatic memories that has strong research support. Our therapists trained in trauma work with teenagers carefully and without pushing.
Attachment-Based Therapy
A lot of what plays out in family conflict comes from attachment patterns, the ways we learned to connect and protect ourselves in our earliest relationships. Attachment-based approaches help both teenagers and parents understand those patterns and start building something more secure.
Structural Family Therapy
This approach looks at the structure of a family system: who has authority, who is too close, who is too distant, what roles people play. It’s useful for families where the dynamic itself is the problem, not just any one person in it.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Mindfulness
ACT teaches teenagers to stop fighting their inner experience and focus on what actually matters to them. Mindfulness-based approaches give teens real tools for managing anxiety and stress that they can use between sessions. For teenagers dealing with the relentless pressure of social media and academic expectations, these skills have immediate practical value.
Internal Family Systems (IFS)
IFS helps people understand the different “parts” of themselves, the inner critic, the protector, the wounded part that doesn’t want to be seen. It’s particularly useful for teens who feel confused about why they do things or feel pulled in different directions.
Working With Parents: How We Handle It
This is one of the questions parents ask most. How involved do you get to be?
Here’s the honest answer: it depends on your teenager’s age, what they’re dealing with, and what they want. There’s no one-size answer.
Under California law, teenagers aged 12 and older have privacy rights in therapy for certain issues. A therapist cannot share what your teenager discloses in session without their consent in most situations. That’s not a barrier to your involvement. It’s actually what makes therapy work. If your teenager knows the room is confidential, they’ll actually say the things that matter.
At the same time, parents aren’t left out. We use structured check-ins with parents, keep you informed about goals and progress in ways the teen agrees to, and actively involve you when the work calls for it. Many treatment plans include family sessions alongside individual teen sessions, so parents have their own space to be heard and get support.
If you have concerns about safety, your therapist will always tell you what you need to know. Safety is never held back from parents under confidentiality.
Serving Silver Lake and the Eastside
Our practice is rooted in Silver Lake, and we know the community well. Teenagers growing up near the Silver Lake Reservoir, attending Marshall High School or John Marshall Middle School, and living in the creative, fast-paced neighborhoods of the Eastside face a particular mix of pressures. The competitive academic environment, the influence of social media, the diversity and complexity of LA family life, these aren’t abstract. They’re the context our clients actually live in.
We serve families from Silver Lake, Los Feliz, Echo Park, Atwater Village, Glassell Park, Koreatown, East Los Angeles, and across the greater LA area. We offer both in-person therapy at our Silver Lake office and telehealth sessions for teenagers and families anywhere in California.
After-school and evening appointments are available, because we know that getting two schedules aligned, especially when one of them belongs to a teenager, isn’t easy.
Practical Information
Free consultation. Start with a no-commitment call. You can ask questions, share what’s going on, and figure out whether we’re the right fit before anything else happens.
After-school, evening, and weekend appointments. Because teens have school, and parents have jobs.
In-person and online. Both options are available. Online teen therapy is effective and often easier for teenagers to actually show up to consistently.
Insurance and fees. We accept insurance and check your coverage before your first session. Sliding scale fees are available on a limited basis for families who need it. Reach out and we’ll figure something out.
Confidentiality. Your teenager’s therapist will explain privacy rights clearly at the start. Parents are involved in treatment in the ways that make clinical sense, with the teen’s knowledge.
School coordination. When appropriate and with consent, our therapists can coordinate with school counselors or teachers to make sure support isn’t happening in silos.
Why David Strah
Our therapists hold active California BBS licenses including LMFT, LCSW, and doctoral-level credentials. Many have specialized training in adolescent mental health, DBT, trauma-informed care, and family therapy specifically. We maintain professional affiliations with CAMFT and AAMFT and are verified on Psychology Today.
We’re an inclusive, affirming practice. LGBTQ+ teenagers and families from all backgrounds are genuinely welcome here, not as an afterthought, but as part of how we practice.
And we’re accepting new clients. No waitlist conversation required to find out.
Frequently Asked Questions About Teen and Family Therapy in Silver Lake
How do I know if my teenager actually needs therapy or if this is just normal teenage behavior?
This is the hardest question, and there’s no perfectly clean answer. Moodiness, some withdrawal, and conflict are genuinely normal parts of adolescence. But there are signs that something more is going on: changes in sleep or eating, dropping grades, withdrawing from all social life, talking about hopelessness or not wanting to be here, self-harm, or a persistent flatness that’s different from their baseline. If you’re asking yourself whether it’s serious, trust that instinct enough to at least have a conversation with a professional. A free consultation doesn’t commit your teenager to anything.
My teenager refuses to go to therapy. What do I do?
Start by not making it a battle if you can avoid it. Teenagers who are dragged into therapy against their will often dig in and refuse to engage. Instead, try having a low-pressure conversation about what you’re noticing, not about what’s wrong with them. Some teenagers respond better to framing it as “I want you to have someone to talk to who isn’t me.” Others respond to the practical angle, that therapy gives them tools. If they’re resistant, consider coming in yourself first. Parents often make real progress in parenting support sessions, and sometimes that alone shifts things at home. A free consultation call where your teen can hear directly from a therapist before committing can also help.
Will the therapist tell me what my teenager is saying in sessions?
In most situations, no. California law gives teenagers aged 12 and older confidentiality rights in therapy for mental health treatment. What your teenager shares stays between them and the therapist, with one clear exception: if there’s a safety concern, meaning your teenager is at risk of harming themselves or someone else, the therapist will always tell you what you need to know to keep them safe. The purpose of confidentiality isn’t to keep parents in the dark. It’s to give teenagers a space where they can be honest, which is what makes therapy work. Your therapist will work with you on regular check-ins so you feel connected to the process without the therapy room losing its safety.
What’s the difference between teen therapy and family therapy? Do we need both?
They’re different things, and sometimes you need one, sometimes both, sometimes they work together. Teen therapy is individual work where your teenager meets one-on-one with their therapist. Family therapy is sessions where two or more family members come in together to work on the dynamic between them. Many of our clients do both: a teenager has their own weekly session, and the family has a session together every few weeks. That often works better than either alone, because it gives the teen their own space while also addressing what’s happening in the family system. Your therapist will talk through what makes sense for your situation after getting to know you.
Does insurance cover teen therapy and family counseling?
It usually does, though the specifics depend on your plan. Most major insurance plans cover individual therapy for minors with a mental health diagnosis. Family therapy coverage is less universal but often included. We verify your insurance benefits before your first appointment so you know what to expect. If coverage is limited or you’re paying out of pocket, we offer sliding scale fees on a limited basis. Don’t assume cost is a dead end before talking to us.
How long does teen therapy typically take?
It really depends on what you’re working on. Some teenagers see meaningful progress in 8 to 12 sessions and feel ready to take a break. Others, especially those dealing with trauma, significant depression, or longstanding family dynamics, may work with a therapist for a year or more. Most teenagers start with weekly sessions, then gradually move to every other week as things stabilize. The goal is never to keep someone in therapy longer than they need. Your teenager’s therapist will talk regularly about where things stand and what the next phase looks like.
My teenager is LGBTQ+ and has had bad experiences with therapists before. Will they be judged here?
No. This matters to us and we take it seriously. Our practice is fully affirming for LGBTQ+ teenagers, including those questioning their identity, those who are out, and those navigating how to be themselves in environments that aren’t always safe. We don’t use conversion approaches or anything that pathologizes identity. Your teenager’s identity is treated as a given, not a problem to be solved. If past therapy felt invalidating or unsafe, we understand why that would make trying again feel like a risk. The free consultation is a chance to ask questions and get a feel for whether this is a space your teenager would actually feel okay in.
Ready to Get Started?
If something brought you to this page, that matters. Trust it enough to make one call.
Contact David Strah today to schedule your free consultation. We’ll talk through what’s going on, answer your questions, and match you with a therapist who’s the right fit for your teenager and your family.
In-person teen therapy and family counseling in Silver Lake, Los Angeles. Online therapy for teens and families throughout California. After-school, evening, and weekend appointments available.
