The Interfaith Bridge Mental Health Blog
Real Talk for Teens, Young Adults, & the People Who Love Them
Welcome to our blog. This is where our Colorado clinical team get real about what teens, young adults, and the people who love them are actually going through. Here you’ll find posts on anxiety, trauma, identity, neurodivergence, relationships, and why the advice you’ve already tried probably isn’t enough.
We write for teens who are trying to make sense of what they’re feeling. For young adults figuring out who they are and what they want out of life. For the parents and caregivers who are showing up every day even when they don’t have the answers. And…for anyone who’s ever Googled something at 2am because they just needed to know they weren’t alone in it.
Every post comes from inside our practice here at Interfaith Bridge Counseling, written by therapists, counselor candidates, and interns who are actively working with young people in Colorado, under the supervision of a licensed professional counselor. No recycled advice. No watered-down wellness content. Just honest, fact-checked, grounded information from people who actually support people like you.
The Drama Triangle: How Parents & Teens Can Survive It
Life and relationships are complicated. Duh, right? Sprinkle in the facts of being a teenager (first loves, high expectations, social pressure, and passionate decisions) and it might seem impossible to stay drama-free.
First, let's normalize that drama, well, is normal.
The Gifts of Letting Go of Dreams & Productivity
"Work hard, play hard." "Shoot for the stars." "Never stop chasing your dreams." "If you can dream it, you can do it!"
These are sayings and quotes we might have heard or seen throughout our lives.
In school, we're faced with the pressure to academically succeed, participate in extracurricular activities, and live a rich social life (this, of course, all while holding unique and inspiring aspirations for ourselves.)
5 Tools to Support Season Change
In the fall the nights grow longer, the temperatures drop, and everything green seems to fade. In spring, the light peeks through our curtains sometimes before we're even awake, the weather gets warmer and while the foliage around us blossoms, allergy season makes its rude debut here in Colorado.
Regardless of the season, it's a change, and change, sometimes, is hard.
Understanding Mindfulness: Self-Distraction vs Self-Awareness
After school activities to get to, tests to prepare for, papers to write. Deadlines to make, social expectations to meet, bills to pay. Chronic illnesses to battle, emotions to process, the world to face. The pressure, the stress, the frustration, the pain, is on. We fly from one thing to the next, hardly able to breathe. We know we need to slow down, to take a moment in the moment, but we can't seem to make ourselves, because what does that even mean anyway?
Maybe, we think, this is the only way we're able to handle all these things, by just pressing on absent-mindedly, numb to what our bodies and minds may be trying to tell us. Or maybe we did try to slow down, to connect with the present, but it seemed to make things worse. It compounded those uncomfortable and painful feelings.
Mindfulness, it turns out, is a double-edged sword.
Breakups: Finding Love for Yourself After the Fallout
Breakups. Sometimes they creep--a slow, terrible fracture between people who once really loved each other. Sometimes they happen suddenly, seemingly without notice, leaving you suddenly alone and heartbroken. However breakups happen, they almost always leave you with a slew of emotions: grief, sadness, anxiety, fear, loneliness, and maybe even, some guilt and shame.
So how do we navigate these feelings? Especially when we're feeling incredibly vulnerable, broken and, well, just down right shitty? We might even think How do I learn to love again?