You’ve noticed something is off with your teenager. Maybe they’ve pulled away from friends. Maybe their grades have slipped. Maybe they’re irritable in a way that feels different from normal teenage moodiness—more intense, more prolonged, harder to brush off.
Or maybe you’re not sure what you’ve noticed. Something just feels different, and you don’t know whether to say something or give them space, whether this is a phase or something that needs attention.
As a parent, you’re often the first to notice. And knowing when to act—and how to have the conversation—can make a real difference in how quickly your teen gets the support they need. At My Denver Therapy, we work with teens across the Denver metro area, and we hear from parents navigating exactly this uncertainty every week. Here’s what to look for and how to approach it.
Signs Your Teen May Need Therapy
Significant Withdrawal from Friends and Activities
Teenagers naturally want more privacy and independence—that’s developmentally appropriate. But there’s a difference between healthy individuation and retreat. If your teen has stopped seeing friends they used to be close with, quit activities they previously enjoyed, or is spending most of their time alone in their room, that level of withdrawal warrants attention.
Isolation is one of the most consistent early signs of depression in adolescents. It also feeds the depression, creating a cycle that can be difficult to break without external support.
Mood Changes That Last More Than Two Weeks
Teenagers have big emotions and their moods fluctuate—that’s normal. What’s worth noting is a sustained shift in baseline: persistent sadness, irritability, or emotional flatness that has lasted two weeks or more and doesn’t seem tied to a specific, temporary cause.
Teenage depression often doesn’t look like adult depression. It’s more likely to appear as irritability, frustration, anger, or acting out than as visible sadness. If your teen seems chronically angry or on edge, depression is worth considering—not just defiance.
Changes in Sleep, Appetite, or Physical Health
Persistent changes in sleep patterns (sleeping much more or struggling to sleep), significant appetite changes, unexplained physical complaints (headaches, stomachaches with no medical cause), or dramatic weight changes can all be signs of anxiety or depression in adolescents. The body registers emotional distress—especially in teenagers, who often don’t yet have the vocabulary to express what they’re experiencing.
Declining Academic Performance
A significant drop in grades—especially when it’s inconsistent with your teen’s history and not explained by a specific academic challenge—can signal that something is affecting concentration, motivation, or attendance. This is particularly relevant in Denver’s academically competitive school environment, where high-achieving teens sometimes experience anxiety and burnout that isn’t visible until it shows up in their grades.
Talking About Hopelessness, Worthlessness, or Not Wanting to Be Here
Any expression that your teen feels hopeless, that things won’t get better, that they’re a burden, or—most urgently—any suggestion that they don’t want to be alive should be taken seriously. These are not phrases to dismiss as teenage dramatics. Have a direct, calm conversation: ask them if they’re having thoughts of hurting themselves. Asking directly does not increase risk—it opens a door that may need to be opened.
If you have immediate concerns about your teen’s safety, contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988, or take them to your nearest emergency room.
Self-Harm
Self-harm (cutting, burning, scratching, or other forms of self-injury) is a sign that your teen is in significant emotional pain and needs professional support now. It’s not always a suicide attempt—it’s often a maladaptive coping mechanism—but it requires immediate attention. Our self-harm therapy in Denver is designed to address this with the clinical depth it requires.
Significant Anxiety About School, Social Situations, or Performance
Avoidance of school, physical symptoms before social events, panic attacks, or extreme distress around tests and performance can indicate anxiety that has crossed a clinical threshold. Denver’s academically competitive culture and social media landscape both contribute to heightened anxiety in teenagers—and early intervention produces significantly better outcomes than waiting.
How to Start the Conversation With Your Teen
How you raise therapy matters. Teenagers are acutely sensitive to feeling judged, labeled, or controlled. A few guidelines from our clinical team:
- Lead with what you’ve observed, not what you’ve diagnosed. “I’ve noticed you seem really tired lately and you haven’t been seeing your friends much. I’m just checking in” lands very differently than “I think you’re depressed and need therapy.”
- Ask questions before making suggestions. “How are you actually doing?” is more likely to open a conversation than jumping straight to solutions. Listen without immediately fixing.
- Normalize therapy explicitly. Many teens still carry stigma about mental health. Hearing a parent say “Lots of people—including adults—find it helpful to have someone to talk to who isn’t in the middle of your life” can shift the framing.
- Give them some control over the process. Letting your teen have a say in choosing their therapist—reviewing bios, having a preference for gender or age—increases buy-in significantly.
- Don’t make it a fight. If they’re resistant, planting the seed and revisiting it in a week is more effective than pushing until they dig in. You can also explore parent counseling while they’re warming up to the idea.
What Teen Therapy Looks Like at My Denver Therapy
Our therapists who specialize in adolescents understand that teenagers engage differently than adults. Sessions are conversational and meet teens where they are—not formal in a way that makes them shut down. We work with teens individually, and often involve parents in a structured way that respects the teen’s need for a private space while keeping parents informed and supported.
We see teens at all four of our Denver-area offices and offer online therapy for teens who prefer it. We can typically see new teen clients within a week of their initial contact. Reach out here to get started.
FAQ: Teen Therapy in Denver
Will my teen’s therapist tell me what they talk about?
Therapy with minors has specific confidentiality rules. Generally, teens 13 and older have the right to privacy in therapy, and your child’s therapist will not share session content with parents without the teen’s consent—with specific exceptions for safety concerns (imminent risk of harm to self or others). This confidentiality is actually important for therapy to work: teens are more honest when they know their therapist isn’t reporting back.
How long does teen therapy take?
This depends on the presenting issues. For focused anxiety or a specific difficult period, 8–16 sessions often produces significant improvement. More complex presentations—trauma, depression, self-harm—typically require longer engagement. Your teen’s therapist will give you a realistic sense of trajectory after the initial sessions.
My teen says they don’t need therapy. What do I do?
This is extremely common. Gentle persistence over time, combined with normalizing mental health care, tends to work better than ultimatums. You can also consider starting with parent sessions yourself—it gives you skills for supporting your teen, and sometimes the changes it creates at home reduce the teen’s resistance to their own therapy.
Can teens be seen online?
Yes. Many teens actually prefer telehealth because they can be in their own space. We offer online therapy throughout Colorado for teens and adolescents.
Written by the clinical team at My Denver Therapy. We offer teen and adolescent therapy at our Denver, Greenwood Village, Lone Tree, and Arvada offices. Learn more about teen therapy in Denver.
