Mindfulness is a mental state where we experience wholeness in the present moment. Cultivating mindfulness includes training our attention to become stable.

An essential parts of healthy adolescent development is learning to manage difficult emotional states. Unfortunately, our tech-driven culture with our lack of emphasis on emotional intelligence leads our youth to be severely impaired in this capacity.

About 20% of adolescents experience bullying. Nowadays, bullying is even more pervasive than before. Common ways of bullying are physical, verbal, relational, and damage of property. It can happen in school, playgrounds, and through technology. Bullying affects those who are bullied, those who bullied others, and those who see bullying going on. We focus on empowering adolescents so they can decrease, avoid, and prevent instances of bullying.

During adolescence the brain becomes capable of processing highly abstract information, like algebra and calculus. It's easy to forget that their brain is still developing. However, the human brain does not stop developing until 25. Some important environmental factors that impact brain development are nutrition, the use of substances, and exercise. Adolescents will be educated on the best ways to continue to take care of their brains in the best way possible.

During adolescence our social life starts to become more complex. Thus, it is normal adolescents have difficulties in expressing their needs, emotions, and thoughts in relationship to others. Our groups will provide ample opportunities for them to develop their ability to forge more skillful interactions with peers, parents, family members, school personnel, and other authority figures.

Since emotions intensify during adolescence, it's not unusual for adolescents to want to escape them. Unfortunately, some of those coping strategies are infused with negative core beliefs that lead to behaviors like cutting, binge eating, promiscuity, vaping, pornography, video games and excessive social media use. Part of what we do is bring awareness to these strategies and develop possibilities for more effective ones.

Adolescence is the time when we being to experiment and explore our sexuality. There are dramatic changes that happen in the body and the mind as kids go through this exploration. It's important to have a safe place where adolescents can learn about their bodies, desires, and wishes to explore their sexuality.

Creativity is an important outlet for adolescents to express their emotions, dreams, hopes, and sense purpose. Expressive types of therapy provide the opportunity to connect with symbols that give expression to internal struggles. It's important to give adolescents alternative ways to understand and become aware of their mind so that growth and healing can happen.