Is your teen struggling with anxiety, friendship issues, low confidence, or the pressures of school and social media? Our 2026 Summer Teen Group Therapy Program is therapist-led and designed to help teens ages 13 to 18 feel more confident, connected, and emotionally equipped. If you have been searching for teen counseling or adolescent mental health support in the Del Mar or Carmel Valley area, this group was built for you.
Topics rotate across the eight weeks, weaving together skill-building, open discussion, and reflective practice. Teens leave each session with tools they can use right away at home, at school, and in their relationships.
A process group is different from a support group or a psychoeducation class. Rather than following a fixed curriculum each week, the conversation is guided by what is alive for the teens in the room. The therapist facilitates with intention, helping participants explore patterns, reactions, and emotions as they come up in real time.
For teens, this format works particularly well. Adolescents are naturally attuned to their peers. A process group meets them in that reality and uses it therapeutically. Teens practice being open, learn to give and receive feedback, and develop the emotional vocabulary to understand themselves more clearly.
Parents throughout Del Mar and Carmel Valley have shared that after their teen participates in group therapy, they seem more grounded at home, more resilient under pressure, and more willing to open up about what they are going through. The benefits show up far beyond the session itself, at the dinner table, in the classroom, and in every relationship your teen navigates.
Kim is a licensed therapist and certified educational advocate with over 15 years of experience working with adolescents and families across San Diego. As one of the area’s most experienced adolescent therapists, she has dedicated her career to teen mental health, helping teens navigate the emotional, social, and academic challenges of growing up.
Her approach is warm, direct, and genuinely attuned to what teens are going through. She creates a space where teens feel safe to open up, without judgment, without pressure, and without feeling rushed. Her clinical work draws on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, mindfulness-based practices, and developmental psychology, always tailored to meet teens where they are.
As a Certified Educational Advocate, Kim also understands the school-side pressures that San Diego teens face, from IEP processes to academic stress to the social dynamics of middle and high school. This perspective makes her especially well suited to support the whole teen, not just the presenting challenge.
The group is kept small on purpose, between 5 and 8 teens, so every participant has space to be seen and heard. This is a private-pay program. We are happy to provide a superbill for out-of-network reimbursement on request.
Families from Del Mar, Carmel Valley, Encinitas, and across San Diego have told us how much this group has meant to their teens and to their homes.
This group is a good fit for teens experiencing mild to moderate anxiety, social stress, low self-esteem, or general emotional overwhelm. It is also well suited for teens who tend to keep things to themselves and rarely talk about what they are going through at home. If your teen has been feeling disconnected, irritable, or just not quite like themselves, a structured group therapy experience can be a great place to start.
This group is not designed for teens in acute crisis or who require a higher level of clinical care. If you are not sure whether this is the right fit, schedule a free 15-minute call with Kim. She will help you figure out whether this program or another service at The Halliday Center makes the most sense for your teen.
The teen therapy group meets at the Hacienda Building in Carmel Valley, with free parking on site. Our teen therapy San Diego practice is conveniently located for families throughout North County coastal communities, including Del Mar, Solana Beach, Rancho Santa Fe, Encinitas, and La Jolla, as well as inland communities like Rancho Bernardo, Poway, and 4S Ranch.
In individual therapy, your teen meets one-on-one with a therapist. In a process group, they work alongside a small group of peers, also guided by a licensed therapist. The group setting adds something individual therapy cannot fully replicate: the experience of being understood by someone your own age. Teens often find it easier to open up when they see that others their age are dealing with the same things.
Yes, and in many cases it works really well. Group therapy complements individual therapy rather than replacing it. Many teens find that the group experience gives them new material to bring into their one-on-one sessions. If your teen is working with another therapist, we just ask that you let that clinician know about the group.
This is one of the most common concerns we hear, and it is completely understandable. Kim creates a space where no one is ever pressured to share before they are ready. Many of the teens who benefit most from group therapy start out as the quietest ones in the room. Just being present and listening is a meaningful part of the process, and most teens find that they open up more naturally over the first few sessions.
This program is private pay and does not bill insurance directly. However, we can provide a superbill after each session that you can submit to your insurance provider for potential out-of-network reimbursement. We recommend calling the member services number on your insurance card to ask about your out-of-network mental health benefits before enrolling.
If your teen is experiencing stress, social anxiety, low self-esteem, or emotional ups and downs that seem to be affecting their daily life, group therapy is worth exploring. The free 15-minute consultation with Kim is the best way to find out. She will ask a few questions about what your teen is going through and give you an honest answer about whether this group is a good fit or whether a different approach might serve them better.
The group meets at the Hacienda Building in the Carmel Valley / Del Mar area of San Diego. Free parking is available on site. The location is easily accessible from Del Mar, Solana Beach, Encinitas, La Jolla, Rancho Santa Fe, and surrounding North County communities.
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Finding quality teen therapy in San Diego can feel overwhelming for families. At The Halliday Center, we have spent years supporting adolescents and families across the area, including Del Mar, Carmel Valley, Encinitas, Solana Beach, and Rancho Santa Fe, with compassionate, evidence-based teen mental health care. Whether your family is looking for a teen therapist in San Diego, teen counseling in Carmel Valley, or adolescent therapy near Del Mar, this summer group is built for exactly that.
Teen group therapy is a uniquely powerful format for adolescents. Unlike one-on-one counseling, the group setting allows teens to realize they are not alone in what they are feeling. Hearing peers share similar struggles, teen anxiety before a big test, tension at home, fear of being left out, can be profoundly normalizing. Over eight Saturday sessions, teens build genuine trust with one another and with their therapist, creating a foundation for real emotional growth.
This is a structured clinical teen therapy group led by a licensed teen therapist with over 15 years of experience working with adolescents in San Diego. Each session is intentional and grounded in evidence-based approaches including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), two evidence-based approaches widely used in adolescent mental health treatment.
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