by Molly Pierce | Nov 20, 2025 | Anxiety Related, Confidence, Relationships
If you’re a parent in Leawood, Overland Park, or the greater Kansas City area, you’ve probably noticed your teen feeling more overwhelmed than ever. School pressure, social media, college prep, and the lingering effects of the pandemic have turned normal stress into daily anxiety for many adolescents.
The good news? You don’t have to fix it alone—and your teen doesn’t have to “just push through.” Two evidence-based therapies, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), are especially powerful for teens, and parents play a crucial supporting role in the process.
How CBT Helps Teens Rewire Anxious Thoughts CBT teaches teens to spot the automatic negative thoughts that fuel anxiety (“Everyone will laugh if I speak up in class” or “I’m going to fail this test and ruin my future”). Together with a therapist, they learn to challenge those thoughts with evidence and replace them with more balanced ones. Over just a few months, many Leawood-area teens notice they feel less paralyzed by worry and more capable of handling tests, friendships, and uncertainty.
How ACT Helps Teens Live Bigger Than Anxiety While CBT focuses on changing thoughts, ACT focuses on changing the relationship with thoughts and feelings. Teens learn mindfulness skills to notice anxiety without getting hooked by it, then clarify what truly matters to them—their values (being a supportive friend, pursuing music, standing up for what’s right)—and take small, brave steps in those directions even when anxiety shows up. The result? A life that feels meaningful instead of fear-driven.
Your Role as a Parent: Connection Over Correction Research shows teens do best when parents shift from “fix-it” mode to “coach-and-connect” mode. Simple, powerful actions include:
- Validating feelings without jumping to solutions (“That sounds really heavy. I’m here.”)
- Modeling healthy coping (your own deep breaths or short walks)
- Encouraging small value-based actions instead of avoidance
- Attending a few joint sessions so you understand the tools your teen is learning
At True Self Counseling in Leawood, we specialize in blending CBT and ACT for adolescents while actively involving parents when it’s helpful. Many families tell us the biggest relief is finally having a shared language and practical strategies that work both in sessions and at home.
If your teen is withdrawing, irritable, or struggling to sleep because of stress and anxiety, you don’t have to wait for it to “get bad enough.” Early support makes a huge difference.
We offer both in-person sessions in Leawood and virtual options for busy Kansas City-area families. Your teen deserves to feel capable and connected—and you deserve to feel like a confident, supported parent again.
Ready to get started? Call or message us—we can’t wait to help your family thrive. Schedule you first session today!
by Molly Pierce | Mar 16, 2016 | Anxiety Related, Balance, Counseling Theory, Depression, Relationships
Albert Ellis is known as the grandfather of Cognitive Behavior Therapy. He combined humanistic, philosophical, and behavioral therapy to form Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) in 1955. A main assumption of REBT is that people contribute to their psychological problems by the way they interpret events. Further, our emotions stem mainly from our beliefs, evaluations, interpretations, and reactions to life situations. REBT assumes that cognitions (thoughts), emotions, and behaviors interact significantly and have a reciprocal cause-and-effect relationship. Additionally, REBT postulates that people are born with a potential for both rational and irrational thinking.
According to Ellis, we have an inborn tendency toward growth and actualization, yet we often sabotage our movement toward growth due to self-defeating patterns we have learned. We originally learn irrational beliefs from significant others during childhood, and we actively reinforce these self-defeating beliefs by repetition, and by behaving as if they are useful. But it is not useful to blame ourselves and others; instead, it is important that we learn how to accept ourselves despite our imperfections. Therefore, a major goal of REBT is to achieve unconditional self-acceptance and unconditional other acceptance; the more one is able to accept him or herself, the more likely he is to accept others.
The therapeutic process involves identifying irrational beliefs, and replacing such beliefs with more rational and effective ways of thinking. Changing one’s thinking results in changing one’s emotional reactions to situations. Ellis succinctly puts it this way, “You mainly feel the way you think.” Some examples of irrational beliefs that lead to self-defeat include: I must have the approval of all the people in my life, or else I am worthless. I must perform all tasks perfectly, or else I am a failure. It is better to avoid life’s difficulties than to try and end up looking foolish.
The A-B-C framework and method of disputing irrational beliefs is central to REBT theory and practice.
A = an event, behavior, or attitude
B = belief about the event
C = emotional & behavioral consequence or reaction (can be healthy or unhealthy)
D = disputing irrational or self-defeating beliefs
E = effective philosophy of replacing unhealthy thoughts with healthy ones
F = a new set of healthy feelings
A (the activating event) does not cause C (the emotional consequence); rather, B (the person’s belief about the event) largely causes C. D is the application of methods to challenge irrational beliefs by detecting, debating, and discriminating irrational (self-defeating) beliefs from rational (self-helping) beliefs. E is the new and effective belief system that consists of replacing unhealthy thoughts with healthy ones. In doing this, F (a new set of healthy feelings) is created.
In summary, Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy entails the following steps: (1) acknowledge that we are largely responsible for our own emotional problems, (2) accept that we have the ability to change these disturbances significantly, (3) recognize that our emotional problems often stem from irrational beliefs, (4) accurately perceive these beliefs, (5) see the value of disputing such self-defeating beliefs, (6) accept that we need to counteract our dysfunctional beliefs/feelings/behaviors, and (7) practice these methods to improve current and future circumstances.
References:
Corey, Gerald. Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy. Belmont. Thomas Learning, Inc. 2005.
