I completely stopped working with teen girls. Too many horror stories and legal issues.

-Girls sneaking out to parties and getting trains run on them.
-Upper-middle-class girls prostituting themselves for drugs.
-Lesbian sex in public school bathrooms.

The kids are not alright.

I’ll work with a challenging teen. The girls weren’t even the problem.

Parents who care so little they let things get this far and then bring their kid to me with a “Here, YOU fix her” attitude as if the kid is the problem.

Then they threaten to sue when you report abuse.

Then factor in mandated reporting. The girls want to process what’s happened with you but anything they share that constitutes abuse MUST be reported or you’re in for a lawsuit and getting your license stripped.

Every session is like a loaded gun to the relationship.

So how can you do therapy with someone who GENUINELY NEEDS HELP but who prompts a MANDATORY report to authorities when they share their experiences so they can never fully trust you with their shameful secrets because they beg you not to share when you absolutely have to?

I leave this question to therapists smarter or braver than myself. I treat these young women when they hit 18 and are in control of their own legal concerns. I even treat these women when they come in at age 65 after a lifetime of struggle.

A therapist must know their limits.

Still, the question remains. How do we help these young teens who need help but whose family situations absolutely task the system to its very limit and threaten the career and mental wellbeing of any healthcare providers who try to help them?

This isn’t a thread about answers. All I can do is provide the question I see in my experience.

Someone needs to find an answer to help these girls.

Few disclaimers in case my board or patients see this:

Not every teen girl patient is this way.
None of this is any specific client because all these have happened multiple times.
Not all parents are this way.
Countertransference concerns was the issue, not judgment on patients.

I very specifically wanted to post this thread as an effort to call attention to this issue which IS causing potential problems to the care young teens receive. Multiple colleagues have come to me with the same concerns.

We MUST find a solution to this, for these teens’ sakes.