Holistic Mental Health Tips for Teens Anxiety, Depression and ADHD Support

Overview

In this episode, I sit down with Carrie Cooper, LCSW, holistic therapist, and author of the Mental Health Uncensored book and workbook series, who has spent nearly 20 years working with teens and college students and has watched the mental health landscape shift dramatically over that time. Carrie’s approach combines traditional talk therapy with the ten foundational lifestyle pillars she believes are at the root of most mental health struggles, and her journey into holistic therapy began when pulling dairy out of her toddler’s diet resolved behavioral symptoms that no specialist had been able to explain. This episode is essential listening for any parent, caretaker, or anyone who works with or loves a young person.

You’ll Learn

• Why the mental health crisis in teens has become almost unrecognizable from what it looked like 20 years ago, why 95 percent of Carrie’s current caseload is anxiety rather than the depression and behavioral issues she used to see, and why she traces the turning point directly to the introduction of social media
• How social media creates chronic background anxiety through constant comparison, the illusion that everyone else has life figured out, and the collapse of genuine relationship time into curated filtered substitutes, and why body image issues are now exploding in boys as well as girls
• The technique Carrie uses with anxious clients of all ages including the distinction between real problems that have real solutions you can act on now, and hypothetical future worries that cannot be problem-solved because they may never happen
• Why she describes meditation not as clearing your mind but as practicing not attaching to thoughts, why that reframe makes it accessible for teens who think they are bad at it, and how mindful walking counts as meditation for people who struggle to sit still
• Why teenagers need approximately nine hours of sleep rather than the seven to eight recommended for adults, why there is no such thing as catching up on sleep debt over a weekend, and why the brain’s glymphatic cleaning process depends on completing full sleep cycles
• The non-negotiables for teen sleep hygiene including phones out of the bedroom and charged in a common area, do not disturb settings by 10pm, dimming screens at least one hour before bed, and building a nighttime routine the child actually looks forward to
• Why parents cannot effectively address their child’s mental health, anxiety, or emotional regulation while modeling the opposite behaviors themselves, and why Carrie considers sleep, food, and exercise non-negotiables that parents must practice first before expecting them of their children
• How to begin releasing overcontrol by starting with laundry as a natural consequence task where children experience the results of their choices without any real crisis, why allowing kids to do things imperfectly builds the confidence they will need in college and adult life, and why asking a child what they need before giving advice transforms the quality of communication in the relationship

Resources

Connect with Keri Cooper:

Email- keri@kericooperholistictherapy.com

Website- https://www.kericooperholistictherapy…

Start sleeping. Prioritize it as a non-negotiable. If you get nothing else from this episode, sleep is the foundation everything else is built on.