As in the anecdote above, we know that parents are a child’s first idols and first friends. Having no perception of right or wrong, they only impersonate actions they see their parents perform. Even without us knowing, they pick up many attributes from us and our support makes them stronger and more confident.

Being the basis of a child’s personality, the Parent-Child equation must remain steady and nurturing. With the parents’ sensitive, stimulating and sincere care, their little ones can develop skills that would help them achieve success as adults. Early interactions with parents define the outline of the child’s prospective personality.

When the child grows up in a household where the parents have open discussions and egalitarian partnership, it becomes independent quicker than children growing up in patriarchal families and possesses the prowess of assertiveness.

An accepting and supportive household also opens the doors for the child’s confidence – they are courageous and easily handle different environments. A positive connection with their parents also helps the effective management of emotions and formation of healthy relationships with peers and family.

To work toward the Positive Parent- Child Relationships Outcome, providers and programs can:

• Provide emotional and concrete support to parents
• Respect diverse parenting styles
• Value cultural differences and home languages
• Reinforce the importance of fathers and other co-parents
• Help parents connect with other parents and community members and resources
• Model warm, responsive relationships by engaging in these relationships with parents and other family members.

During the period of puberty, children go through many hormonal as well as physical changes; the appearance of secondary sexual characteristics and gradual but drastic changes in personality begins in this age bracket. It also brings out the latent sexual feelings. In most cases, the desire to engage in intimate and romantic relationships is observed. Teenagers begin to confide in and trust their companions more than they did their parents, leading to a disparity in the once-strong parent-child interactions. Now they seek to replicate the behaviours of their peers like they imitated their parents’ which leads to the creation of identity through various media, for instance, the genre of music they listen to, the way they sport their clothes, joining various social institutions like interest groups, expressing their opinions on social networking sites, etc. begins to show. As a result, peer pressure gets the bigger piece of cake, influencing decision making and behavioural patterns, even those that are anti-social or unhealthy, resulting in the kids risking themselves to spontaneous aggression, alcohol and/or substance abuse, unsafe sexual interactions, etc.

Widespread as a topic among scientific researchers and lay press, challenges faced by adolescent regarding mental health – depression, suicide, drug abuse – and many other serious problems are increasing in magnitude day by day. A majority of the young population is going through stress and neurotic symptoms than an average adolescent should.

But the purpose of the experts at Brainberg, is not to describe these problems or the therapeutic strategies to address them, but to elucidate them in the context of adolescent development, focusing on possible prevention and enhancing fruitful execution even under adverse circumstances.

Efforts are made to understand and guide the youth in diverse ways as a larger system; working with teenagers and their families with the traditional approach is crucial, but sometimes there needs to be a bigger, structural change in the whole to alter the current situation faced by an entire generation. We emphasize on the theme of ‘surplus of time’, an element that the adolescent needs yet the adults are deficient of. The root cause of the surge in mental health issues in children is the lack of conversation between them and their parents.

As they reach the peak of their adolescence, teens begin to hide or conceal events of their life and their feelings from their parents for fear of being reprimanded and even chastised. This, coupled with the short amount time spent together, leads to parents being unaware of their child’s obstacles, and division by an imaginary cocoon that the child engulfs himself into. It can further sprout as an adjustment problem in the form of anti-social behaviour, social anxiety and depression. Professionals at Brainberg are eager to assist these buds to safeguard themselves and bloom even in muddy waters.

Adolescence is the bridge that connects childhood to adulthood, the phase where a child is transforming into an adult is quite like a tadpole in its legging phase slowly learning to come out of the water, forming the biological necessities required as an adult amphibian. Teenagers can neither act independently as adult nor are they dependent on their parents for all their needs. This growth phase does not only include physical transformation but emotional changes also occur in their dynamic brains. They begin to assess everything based on their own experiences; they break as many beliefs as they form, and identity crisis only acts as a negative catalyst.

They need someone who is both a friend and a mentor to them, who they can share everything with and be shown ways to overcome the conflicts they suffer from. Most of them do not choose parents because they too are a part of the stress factors, academic excellence and career choices are sensitive and difficult topics that must be handled carefully.

A crosscutting theme, regardless of one’s professional role, is the need to communicate effectively with the youth. Adolescents cannot ‘open up’ to adults on demand, there needs to be an emotional bond that they form with the chosen person and trust them enough to be honest with them. This is apparent in the relationship between the professional and the adolescent, however brief it may be. Brainberg has committed itself to lend an ear to these youngling to comprehend their minds rationally and emotionally, and be flexible enough to accommodate the wide range of teenagers it would come across; to foster their self discovery and organize their skills and interests to suit the chosen field of education and career.