TEEN COPE Depression Prevention Group
About 20% of teenagers will experience depression before the age of 18, and girls are two to three times as likely as boys to get depressed.
Signs of depression in teenagers include:
-Lack of energy or motivation
-Feeling sad and hopeless about the future
-Withdrawing from friends and family
-Changes in sleeping and eating habits
-Loss of enjoyment in activities
-Frequent crying
-Difficulty concentrating
-Irritability, anger, or hostility
Early intervention is crucial to helping teens cope with depression. If left untreated, teen depression is associated with a number of negative outcomes in the future, including:
-Adult depression
-School failure
-Drug and alcohol use
-Early sexual activity
-Involvement in the criminal justice system
-Suicide
The Teen Cope group is a depression prevention group for high school girls ages 14-18. It is great for teenage girls who are showing some signs of depression or anxiety, but not for girls who are currently experiencing great impairment from depression. One of the group leaders will meet with each girl prior to starting the group to make sure that the program will be a good fit.
Teen Cope is a psycho-educational group; that is, it teaches skills to cope with stress and negative feelings rather than having a “talk therapy” format. The program is based on a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy model, and is adapted from a program that has been evaluated by research and found to have great effects to prevent long-term depression in teenagers.
The group meets weekly for an hour for a total of 9 weeks. Groups are held at the Clinical Psychology Center (CPC) on the ASU Tempe campus, located in the Psychology building. The group is run by student therapists who have completed their Master’s degrees and are working towards their Ph.D.s in Clinical Psychology. The program is supervised by Dr. John Barton, a licensed clinical psychologist and director of the CPC. There is a flat fee charged for the 9-week program.
Please see our printable flyer (link) or call the CPC at 480-965-7296 for more information or to set up a screening appointment.
You can also e-mail us at clinic@asu.edu with questions.
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