Is Your Teen an Emotional Sponge? – Shrinking It Down - MGH Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds

Is Your Teen an Emotional Sponge? – Shrinking It Down

By Ellen Braaten, PhD and Gene Beresin, Executive Director

Posted in: Hot Topics, Multimedia, Parenting Concerns, Podcast, Teenagers

Topics: Child + Adolescent Development, Relationships

Peers can be an excellent source of social support, and it’s great that more young people today talk to friends about their emotional challenges. But for every teen who shares, there’s another teen absorbing the info like an emotional sponge. And while it feels good to help a friend, it can also feel overwhelming – even scary – to be a friend’s sole source of support, especially for serious issues.

On today’s episode of Shrinking It Down, Dr. Gene Beresin and Dr. Ellen Braaten help parents to think about the pros and cons of being an emotional sponge, ways for teens to set boundaries around what they can do on their own, and strategies to bring in others to help a friend in need, when it needs to be part of a team effort.

Thanks for joining in this conversation. If you have a comment or question about being an emotional sponge, write to us!

Media List

Steve Martin and Chris Rock Welcome Everyone to Oscars 2020 (YouTube)
Movie Review: A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (Common Sense Media)
Being an Emotional Sponge: Supporting Young People Who Are Supporting Friends (MGH Clay Center)
Navigating A Mental Health Crisis (NAMI)
Self-Care for Resilience – Resources (MGH Clay Center)
Building Mental Wellness in Children – What Parents Can Do (MGH Clay Center)
Five Parenting Rules for Coping With the Current Political Climate (MGH Clay Center)
Tweet to us @mghclaycenter (Twitter)

Episode produced by Sara Rattigan

Music by Gene Beresin

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Ellen Braaten, PhD

Ellen Braaten, PhD, is executive director of the Learning and Emotional Assessment Program (LEAP) at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), an associate professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School, and former co-director for the MGH Clay Cente...

To read full bio click here.

Gene Beresin, Executive Director

Gene Beresin, MD, MA is executive director of The MGH Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds, and a staff child and adolescent psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital. He is also...

To learn more about Gene, or to contact him directly, please see Our Team.