Teen Therapy in St. Petersburg, FL

If you are looking for a teen therapist in St. Petersburg, you are probably not looking because everything is fine. Most parents call us after weeks or months of watching something shift: a bright kid who stopped turning in work, a social kid who stopped leaving their room, a calm kid who now snaps at everyone in the house, or a teenager who finally said out loud that they are not okay. You do not need to have it figured out before you call. Sorting out what is going on is our job, not yours.

Family Psychology Associates has served Tampa Bay families since 1992. We are a group practice of more than twenty licensed psychologists, mental health counselors, and clinical social workers, with offices in St. Petersburg, Safety Harbor, and Trinity, plus telehealth throughout Florida. Because we are a group rather than a solo office, we can match your teenager to a clinician whose training actually fits the concern, and we can add psychological testing when the picture is not clear.

Clinically reviewed by Geoffrey Peal, Psy.D., Licensed Psychologist | Last updated July 30, 2026 | Family Psychology Associates has served Tampa Bay since 1992.

What Teens Come to Us For

Adolescence compresses a lot into a short window, and all of it happens in front of an audience that never logs off. Most of the teenagers we see are not in crisis. They are struggling with something ordinary that has gotten heavy enough to interfere with school, sleep, or family life.

Concerns our adolescent clinicians commonly work with include:

Anxiety, including test and performance anxiety, social anxiety, panic, and worry that has started to shape what your teen is willing to do
Depression and low mood, which in teenagers often looks like irritability and withdrawal rather than sadness
School stress, avoidance, and refusal, including the slow slide from missing one assignment to missing whole days
ADHD and executive function struggles, especially when a system that worked in middle school stops working in high school
Anger, conflict at home, and the breakdown of parent and teen communication
Self-esteem, body image, and identity, including questions about sexual orientation and gender identity
Friendship conflict, bullying, and social media pressure
Grief, divorce, moves, and other family transitions
Trauma, including single events and longer patterns of adversity
Self-harm and thoughts of suicide, which we assess directly and take seriously at every visit

What We See in Our Teen Caseload

Three patterns stand out right now. Middle and high school students whose anxiety shows up as academic avoidance, stomachaches and headaches, or irritability rather than the quieter worry we used to see. Teenagers whose ADHD has been stable for years but whose coping strategies no longer scale to the demands of high school, where the scaffolding of elementary and middle school is gone and the executive load is much higher. And adolescents whose depression is presenting as irritability, academic withdrawal, and physical complaints, where the family came in believing the problem was attitude or oppositional behavior.

We also see a steady number of teenagers whose presenting concern is anxiety or mood but whose fuller picture includes something that was never named. Undiagnosed ADHD in bright students who compensated until the workload caught up with them. Learning disabilities that were missed because grades looked adequate until fourth or fifth grade. Trauma histories that were never addressed. Sleep problems significant enough to mimic a mood disorder. Part of a careful first few visits is sorting through those possibilities before locking in a plan, and referring for testing when the answer is not clear from conversation alone.

A group that often goes under-served is adolescents leaving structured school environments. High school accommodations do not automatically transfer to college, self-advocacy has to replace parent scaffolding, and managing medication and appointments becomes the teenager’s job. We work with families on that handoff before it becomes a crisis in the first semester away.

What Teen Therapy Actually Looks Like Here

The first appointment. Most first visits include time with you and your teenager together and time with your teenager alone. We gather history, ask about school, sleep, mood, friendships, substances, and safety, and we explain how confidentiality will work so everyone hears the same thing at the same time. You will leave with a sense of what we think is going on and what the next few weeks look like.

The early sessions. Adolescents do not open up on a schedule. The first block of work is usually about building enough trust that honest conversation becomes possible, while also getting some quick relief on the most pressing problem.

The approaches we use. Our adolescent clinicians draw on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for anxiety, depression, and avoidance, Dialectical Behavior Therapy skills for emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and self-harm, and EMDR and other trauma-focused protocols when trauma is part of the picture. Which of these your teen gets depends on the assessment, not on which method the clinician happens to prefer.

Pace and logistics. Most teens start weekly and sessions run about fifty minutes. We offer after-school and evening appointments, plus telehealth for families juggling sports, jobs, and two households.

Your Role as a Parent

Parents sometimes assume that teen therapy means handing your child to a professional and stepping back. That is not how it works well. The teenagers who make the most progress usually have parents who stay involved in a specific, bounded way.

In practice, you get regular contact with the clinician about themes and progress without a transcript of what your teen said, concrete guidance on what to change at home, and a place to say the things you cannot say in front of your child, including how worried and exhausted you are.

When the pattern that needs to change is a household pattern rather than an individual one, we will say so and recommend family therapy or parent training alongside the individual work.

Screens, Sleep, and Social Media

Almost every parent who calls us asks about phones. The research that has moved our thinking is less about total hours and more about the pattern of use. A study published in JAMA that followed nearly 4,300 U.S. adolescents from ages nine and ten to age fourteen found that compulsive, emotionally driven screen use was associated with two to three times greater likelihood of suicidal thoughts, depression, anxiety, aggression, and behavioral problems. Screen time alone was a much weaker signal than compulsive use.

That changes the conversation from a fight about hours to a question about function: does your teen use their phone to avoid things, do they escalate when it is taken away, and is it eating sleep? Our longer guide for parents covers what to watch for and how to set limits without starting a war: Teen Screen Addiction and Mental Health: What Parents Need to Know.

When Testing Is Part of the Answer

Sometimes talking is not enough to answer the question in front of a family. When a teenager is working hard and still failing, when attention problems and anxiety are tangled together, or when a school evaluation came back saying the student does not qualify, objective data changes the conversation. Family Psychology Associates provides comprehensive psychological testing, including ADHD evaluations, cognitive and IQ assessment, learning disability evaluations, and evaluations related to autism spectrum concerns.

Testing is worth considering when any of the following is true:

Effort and outcome do not match, and nobody can explain why
An earlier diagnosis explains some of what you see but not all of it
Your teen needs documentation for school accommodations, a 504 plan, or extended time on college entrance exams
The school declined to evaluate, or found your teen ineligible for school-based services
Attention, mood, and learning concerns overlap enough that the treatment plan keeps missing

A good evaluation names what is actually happening, rules out the conditions that mimic it, and produces recommendations a school can act on. Ambreen Shahabuddin, Ph.D., BCBA-D, conducts evaluations for our practice.

Clinicians Who Work With Teens

At our St. Petersburg office, clinicians who work with adolescents include Kate Blake, Psy.D., Geoffrey Peal, Psy.D., Dexter Rogers, LMHC, and Sally Rosendale, LCSW.

Across our other offices and telehealth, adolescent clinicians include Lisa Averoff, LMHC, Susan Vanpelt, LMHC, CRC, CCTP, and Lester Weiss, LCSW in Safety Harbor; Izmini “Mina” Grady, LCSW, Eric Schave, LMHC, Michael T. Smith, Ph.D., and Benjamin Snyder, Ph.D. in Trinity; and Christine Bergman, LMHC and Britney Jenkins, LCSW by telehealth.

Fit matters more with teenagers than with almost any other group. Tell our intake team what your teen is like and what has not worked before, and we will match on that. Full profiles are on our team page.

Frequently Asked Questions About Teen Therapy

What ages do you consider teen therapy?

Our teen therapy work generally covers the adolescent years, roughly middle school through the end of high school. If your child is younger, our child therapy page is the better starting point. If your teenager has graduated and is navigating college or first jobs, ask our intake team about young adult therapy. When a teen is near a boundary, we match to the clinician whose experience fits.

Is what my teenager says in therapy confidential?

Adolescent therapy works best when a teen believes the room is theirs. In practice that means your teen’s clinician will keep the content of sessions private in most circumstances, while still keeping you informed about how the work is going, what themes are showing up, and what would help at home. There are clear limits. If your clinician believes your teen is at risk of harming themselves or someone else, or learns about abuse, that information is shared. Your clinician will explain exactly how confidentiality will work in your family’s case during the first appointment, with you and your teen in the room together, so nobody is guessing.

My teenager does not want to come. What do I do?

This is one of the most common calls we get, and reluctance is not a reason to wait. A useful frame for your teen is that they are agreeing to a small number of sessions to see whether the clinician is someone they can work with, not signing up for years of therapy. We also ask parents to hand over what control they reasonably can: let your teen weigh in on the schedule, the location, and whether they meet in person or by telehealth. Many teens who arrive with their arms crossed are talking freely by the third session.

How long does teen therapy usually take?

It depends on what brought you in. A focused problem such as test anxiety, a specific social situation, or adjustment to a family change can respond in a few months. Depression, longstanding anxiety, trauma, or self-harm typically needs longer and moves in stages. Your clinician will talk with you about a realistic timeframe after the first few sessions and will revisit it with you as things change, rather than leaving the plan open-ended.

Do you meet with parents too?

Yes. Almost every adolescent case includes some parent contact, whether that is a check-in at the start or end of a session, separate parent sessions, or family sessions when the pattern that needs to change lives in the household rather than in the teenager. Some families also benefit from structured parent training alongside their teen’s individual work.

What does it cost, and do you take insurance?

Several of our clinicians are paneled with major insurance plans and others are out of network. Fees vary by clinician and by service, and testing is billed differently from therapy. Rather than quote a number that may not apply to your plan, our intake team reviews your specific coverage and gives you the expected cost before your first appointment. Start on our new client page.

Related Support for Your Family

Looking for support for a younger child? See our page on child therapy in St. Petersburg, where we describe play-based and behavioral approaches for younger kids.

Families often use more than one of our services at once. You may also want to look at anxiety treatment, depression, trauma resolution, family therapy, parent training, and young adult therapy.

Where We See Teens

St. Petersburg
5628 Central Ave, First Floor, St. Petersburg, FL 33707
727-900-7014
Convenient to downtown St. Pete, Kenwood, Pasadena, Gulfport, St. Pete Beach, and the Pinellas beaches.

Safety Harbor
801 2nd Street North, Suite 7, Safety Harbor, FL 34695
727-725-8820
Minutes from Clearwater, Palm Harbor, Dunedin, Largo, and Oldsmar.

Trinity
10751 Maple Creek Drive, Trinity Professional Place, Building 8, Suite 101, Trinity, FL 34655
727-203-3770
Minutes from New Port Richey, Holiday, Tarpon Springs, East Lake, and Keystone.

Telehealth appointments are available to families anywhere in Florida. Appointments are available six days a week and four nights a week.

Our Clinical Standards

Every clinician at Family Psychology Associates holds a current Florida license as a psychologist, mental health counselor, or clinical social worker. Content on this page reflects clinical approaches currently used by our practice and is reviewed by FPA clinical leadership. It is written for general education and is not a substitute for individualized clinical consultation.

If your child or teen is in crisis, having thoughts of harming themselves, or in immediate danger, call or text 988 (the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline), go to your nearest emergency room, or call 911.

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