Something has shifted with your teenager and you are not sure how serious it is. Maybe they have gone quiet, or the mornings have become a fight, or a friendship has fallen apart and taken their confidence with it. You are trying to work out whether this is ordinary adolescence or whether your teenager needs someone outside the family. Our psychotherapists in Vaughan work with teenagers and with the parents who bring them, and the first conversation is free.
- Free 30-minute initial assessment
- Sessions start at $120
- Clinicians registered with CRPO and OAMHP
- No referral needed
- Saturday morning appointments
- In person in Vaughan or online
What Brings Teenagers to Therapy in Vaughan
Very few teenagers arrive saying what is wrong. Parents notice a change in the ordinary things first: sleep, appetite, how long the bedroom door stays shut.
The reasons families in Vaughan get in touch are fairly consistent. Worry that has stopped switching off. A mood that has flattened out. A friendship group that has turned. Pressure around marks and university applications. A teenager who has started to speak about themselves with real contempt.
Several of those are treated in their own right here rather than as a phase to be waited out. If worry is the main thing, start with anxiety therapy. If the low mood has lasted, depression sets out what treatment involves. Where the difficulty sits between people in the house rather than inside one person, family therapy is often the better fit, and attention and focus difficulties sit under ADHD and ADD. You do not need to know which applies before you call.
Anxiety and School Pressure in the Teenage Years
School is where most teenage anxiety becomes visible, because school is where the deadlines are. An anxious teenager rarely says they are anxious. They say they feel sick in the mornings, or that a class is pointless, or they stop handing work in. At home that reads as laziness, usually the least accurate explanation going.
The work in session is rarely about the timetable. It is about what a teenager believes will happen if they get something wrong, and how fast that belief becomes a stomach ache on a Tuesday. One approach our clinicians draw on is cognitive behavioural therapy, which CAMH describes as a practical, short-term form of psychotherapy that is structured, problem-focused and goal-oriented, and usually runs between 6 and 20 sessions.
How Teen Counselling Helps With Friendships and Social Media
Friendships are not a side issue in adolescence, which is why being pushed out of a group can look disproportionate from the outside and feel, inside, like the floor has gone.
Social media sits in the middle of this, and it is worth being accurate about what is known. The Canadian Paediatric Society, in its 2023 commentary Social media and youth: A call to action, states that emerging evidence published since its 2019 position statement correlates social media use with adverse mental health impacts, and that these effects have magnified since the onset of the pandemic. The CPS adds that evidence gaps exist on the long-term impacts, while judging that there are enough red flags to warrant action. It notes that social media is used almost universally by young people aged 13 to 18, and has called on health care providers to counsel families on healthy screen use, and on families to use strategies such as media plans and screen-free times.
That is a more useful starting point than a confiscated phone. In teen counselling the questions are narrower: which accounts make things worse, and what a teenager is comparing themselves against without realizing it.
101 Psychotherapy – Always caring, always here
Self-Worth and Confidence in Teen Therapy
A teenager who is unkind about themselves is often fluent about it, and the list has the confidence of something rehearsed. That fluency is the part worth attending to, because it means a view has settled rather than passed through.
Low self-worth rarely stays in one place. It shows up as not auditioning, not applying, not answering in class, then as evidence for the original belief. Therapy works on both halves of that loop, which is slower than reassurance and holds better. Self-esteem is listed among the concerns treated on several of our clinicians’ profiles, and where the difficulty is about speaking up, our assertiveness training page covers that ground.
Confidentiality in Teen Therapy: What Parents Are and Are Not Told
This is the question parents ask most.
A teenager will not speak freely if they believe the session is being reported home. At the same time you are the parent, you are usually booking and paying, and you are entitled to understand how this works.
In Ontario the starting point is not age. The College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario sets out in Standard 3.2: Consent that there is no minimum age for consent, and that clients under 18 can give consent if they are capable of understanding and appreciating the consequences of their decision. The College adds that for minors, consent must be considered case by case in light of the young person’s capacity and the applicable laws. So the answer for a 14-year-old and the answer for a 17-year-old may differ, and the difference is about capacity rather than birthday.
In practice the boundaries are agreed out loud at the start, with both of you, rather than assumed. Your therapist will explain the duty of confidentiality and its limits, which the College’s Standard 3.1: Confidentiality names as one way of demonstrating that standard. Information is not disclosed without consent except as permitted or required by law. Within those limits, what your teenager says in the room generally stays in the room, while you can expect to be kept in the picture about how therapy is going and what would help at home. If you want that mapped out first, ask at the free consultation.
When Your Teenager Does Not Want to Try Therapy
Reluctance is close to standard and it is not usually a verdict on therapy. It is a teenager declining to be managed, which at that age is developmentally on schedule.
A few things help. Being honest that you have booked a first conversation, not a course of treatment. Letting them have some say in who they see. And not presenting therapy as a consequence, since a teenager who arrives believing they are in trouble will spend the session proving they are fine.
The free 30-minute assessment exists partly for this. Nobody is committed to anything, and if the fit is wrong we would rather find out at no cost than three sessions later. If your teenager would rather not walk into a clinic, online therapy is available across Ontario, and some are more forthcoming on a screen than in a room.
What Teen Therapy Costs in Vaughan
Sessions at 101 Psychotherapy start at $120, and the first 30-minute assessment is free.
Parents want two numbers: what a session costs, and how many there will be. The second cannot be promised honestly, but the likely shape of the work is discussed at the assessment rather than left open. Sessions with a Registered Psychotherapist are not covered by OHIP. Where the client is under 18 the claim normally goes through a parent’s plan, and you will receive a receipt for your provider. No referral is needed to book.
Book a Free ConsultationMeet Your Therapists at 101 Psychotherapy
A teenager tends to decide inside the first ten minutes whether they will talk to this person, and no biography predicts that. It is why the first 30 minutes cost nothing, and why we would rather change the match than push through a bad one.
Natalie Besharat
Clinician, Pediatric Care and Addictions Specialist, MSc, CCAC, CICAPP Candidate
Full profile
Teen Therapy in Vaughan or Online Across Ontario
We're here to support individuals and families across Vaughan, including Concord, Woodbridge, and Maple, and in nearby communities such as Aurora, Brampton, Markham, Mississauga, Milton, Oakville, Oshawa, and Richmond Hill, as well as Thornhill. We also welcome clients from across Toronto, including North York, Midtown, and Uptown Toronto. If you can't make it to our office, we offer virtual appointments across Ontario.
Visit us: 1520 Steeles Ave W #101A, Vaughan, ON L4K 3B9 (Steeles & Dufferin, Concord). Phone: (905) 597-2521
Frequently Asked Questions About Teen Therapy
Is it normal for a 14-year-old to go to therapy?
Yes. Fourteen sits where secondary school, friendship groups and self-image all shift at once, so it is an ordinary age to start. In our experience a teenager who begins then is rarely in crisis, which is the point: a pattern is easier to work on before it has had two years to set.
What type of therapy is best for teens?
With a teenager the fit matters more than the label, because nothing starts until they decide to speak. More of our clinicians are trained in cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) than in anything else, and it tends to suit a teenager who gets on with structure and homework. Others work more slowly and relationally, for one who needs to trust an adult first.
Is therapy free for minors in Canada?
Not here. 101 Psychotherapy is private: the first 30 minutes are free and sessions start at $120 after that. Publicly funded options exist, and Kids Help Phone is free across Canada at any hour. What those cost is time, and families move privately when the wait outlasts what the problem will hold.
What is a therapist for teens?
Not a separate profession: it is a therapist whose training and caseload include adolescents. The differences are practical, such as how a first session goes with someone who did not want to come, and how confidentiality is explained to a teenager and a parent at once.
How to help a teenager with anxiety and depression?
Treat the change as information rather than behaviour, and ask about it plainly without a fixed idea of the answer. Keep sleep, food and movement steady, since those are within a household’s control. Avoid making reassurance the whole strategy, because it wears off faster each time. If it has lasted weeks rather than days, or school has become hard to face, get an assessment. If your teenager is in immediate danger call 911, and 9-8-8 is Canada’s suicide crisis helpline, by call or text at any hour.
Talk to a Teen Therapist in Vaughan
Booking the first 30 minutes commits your teenager to nothing. Bring the questions you have, and decide together afterwards.