Two Easy Tools for Doing a Mental Health Check-in with Your Teen

It’s time for a youth mental health check in. How are the teens in your life doing?

Many youth are experiencing a swath of feelings after transitioning to in-person activities after two pandemic years. At Ophelia’s Place, youth are sharing that they’re feeling anxiety around reconnecting with friends, school performance and motivation, and depression.

While not every tool in the proverbial toolkit works for everyone in every situation, there are two worth revisiting:

A Circle of Control

Youth are bombarded with challenges, joys, and information every day. Homework assignments, a friendship struggle, home stresses, news shared online, and so much more. Sometimes it’s overwhelming. One way to control stress and reduce anxiety is to narrow where to spend emotional energy.

A Circle of Control represents the view of all of the things and situations that cause a young person stress.

• Items listed outside of the circle are things they can’t directly influence, like how other people feel or what they do.

• Items listed inside the circle are things they can control, like their own habits and behaviors.

Youth can give it a try. Ask them to draw a circle and list the stressors top of mind today. List the ones they can control inside of their circle, and the ones they can’t control outside of their circle.

By having this visual representation, a young person can have a clear picture of what they can let go of outside of their circle, and focus on needs they can actually change (and maybe reduce their level of anxiety in the process.)

A Self-Care Plan

After simplifying the list of stressors, teens can jot down a self-care plan to tackle the items within their circle of influence. Self-care plans can include:

Your teen’s self-care plan can include signing up for therapy services or a support group. Check out OP’s summer support groups on our activities calendar.

Goals for supporting positive habits. Maybe your teen is shouldering an irregular sleep schedule and it’s impacting how they feel every day. In their self-care plan, they can list, “create a consistent homework schedule,” if finding time for homework is tough.

A list of activities that support mental well-being, like journaling, dancing – anything that brings them comfort and joy. When the plan is complete, they’ll have a list of ideas to revisit and use during high-stress times (or even daily). They can post their plan in a visible area, like next to the light switch in their room or on the fridge.

Remember: self-care plans aren’t meant to measure productivity, but to remind teens of the self-care actions that work best to care for them.

Visual tools like a Circle of Control and a Self-Care Plan help break down overwhelming feelings into actionable, individualized care activities for youth. It takes practice, and help from support systems like parents, organizations like Ophelia’s Place, and trusted peers and adults is great too.