Top 13 Therapeutic Activities for Teens to Boost Mental Well-Being
- Jennie Lannette Bedsworth, MSW, LCSW
- 2 days ago
- 8 min read
Discover 13 engaging therapeutic activities that can enhance mental well-being for teens. Support their journey to emotional health, starting today!
Teenagers may be the toughest and most vulnerable group among us. Even in the best of environments many adolescents suffer through ridicule, anxieties, and unrealistic expectations that adults can't quite grasp. All of the best and worst of humanity is there, but the norms of general adult politeness and self-restraint are not yet in place.
So how can we help? There are many therapeutic activities for teens to help encourage safe emotional expression, improve self-awareness, and promote trusting relationships. Through non-verbal exploration, expressive techniques, and therapy games you can create a fun, welcoming, and healing environment for your teens. Included below are 13 therapeutic activities you and your teens can start using right away to heal, build resilience, and thrive.
Therapeutic Activities for Teens
Analytical (Carl Jung) Expressive Exercises
I used to have a large sand tray setup in my physical therapy office. I expected it to be most popular with my kid clients, but teenagers were also drawn to it. Some liked to create a scene and explain it, while others used it more as a fidget or self-soothing tool while we talked.
Creative therapy activities like sand play, sand tray (variations of each other) and drawing mandalas (more on that below) were created or inspired by Jungian psychology (Roesler, 2019). In case you're not familiar, Carl Jung was a well-known expert from the 90s who pioneered the ideas of dream work, archetypes, and analytical psychology.
Sand play & sand tray
Sand play techniques originated in the decades after Jung's time but was based on his archetype work. While it's a specific therapeutic approach, varying approaches of sand tray therapy are used by therapists around the world.
Both approaches begin with a blue tray filled with sand and a diverse set of miniatures, allowing the individual (or even families or groups) to create "worlds" within the setting. The blue represents water and sky, while the sand allows for grounding and building.
If teens feel intimidated by the general idea of sand play, you can incorporate sand tray prompts to help. Examples include, "Create a world that shows how your day is going," or "Show how you feel without using any people in your tray." However, I find that many teens will jump right in with little direction needed.
In my training of sand tray for specific issues like trauma or anxiety, I learned that the variety of images available is key for mental health treatment. Each person is drawn to different themes and archetypes, and these can represent any number of experiences.
Although you might think sand tray would be limited to in-person work, there are actually really cool online sand trays available that are created for therapeutic work. You can learn more about printable and digital miniatures here.
Drawing mandalas
Mandalas are another offshoot of Jungian work, although he developed this technique himself. Jung believed the circle of the mandala, which originated in Buddhism, created a boundary of a person's inner world (Liu et al., 2020). His patients would draw or paint mandalas on a regular basis, demonstrating change in the inner psyche.
Although creating mandalas isn't necessarily more effective than other types of creative activities, I find it to be a great prompt for teens. The circle allows a safe structure that can be filled however a teen wants to fill it at the space. It can help with stress relief and being in the present moment.
Incorporate mandalas into therapy sessions, either as a planned or sponatneous creative tool to complement verbal expression.
Creative Therapy Activities
Art therapy projects are another great tools for teens and overlap with Jung’s activities. Art therapy is actually its own modality, as you may know, that has specific goals and techniques. However, creative and expressive activities can be included in man areas of the therapy process, from CBT to family work and beyond. So whether you're a Jungian or a DBT leader, these activities can appropriately complement your work with teens. Here are some basic activities that can’t go wrong.
Collaging
Collaging is an easy activity that can also apply to multiple areas, with both positive and difficult feelings and experiences. The old-fashioned way works great, with ripped up magazines and glue, tape, or a bulletin board.
You can leave it open-ended, or provide a prompt such as expressing an emotion, depicting an experience, or focusing on a goal or the future. It's also a great starting point for discussions about intentions, concrete steps, and developing the future self.
Mask Making
Mask making is something I saw more in therapy 10 years ago compared to today. However, it has the same potential to be used as an expressive technique for teens. The prompts can represent the image one projects of oneself, different parts of the self, or what the adolescent really feels inside. It's an excellent way to kick of self discovery. Basic supplies such as cardboard and sticks can be used, or you can get fancy with clay or paper mache.
Therapy Games
Need a way to disguise dryer topics while still offering real therapeutic value in sessions? Games, especially those designed with therapeutic prompts, are perfect. Here are some commonly used and effective games for therapy, as well as some new ideas to try.
Jenga
There's just something about Jenga and other tumbling tower blocks. You can play fairly mindlessly, chatting while you sit next to a therapist's desk. Or, therapeutic prompts can be incorporated by drawing or reading them off a pre-made block.
Make your own prompts or write on your blocks with a sharpie. Even better, print pre-made stickers to apply to blocks, or for online therapy use a virtual version. Pre-made Jenga prompts are available for a variety of mental health issues.
Dice
Dice are a great way to make otherwise boring or intimidating prompts randomized and more accessible. One simple way is to apply the numbers on the dice to certain prompts or challenges. You can also print pre-made dice or use online versions. It takes a simple concept like asking a client about their experiences and makes it into a fun game -- perfect for teens!
Therapeutic board games
Therapeutic board games build on the concepts of dice or therapy Jenga and take them to the next level. There are pre-made printable games made by therapists to help teens develop essential coping skills and improve mental health in a fun and interactive way. They are ideal for group therapy activities.
Examples include FEELOPOLY, CBT Island Quest, and the Greatest DBT Game on Earth. These games are designed to help with engaging adolescents as well as supporting problem-solving skills.
Therapy games make for fun therapy activities great for individual teens and group sessions alike, helping to enhance communication skills. They're a great way to help teens express uncomfortable feelings in a safe and supportive environment. Check out these printable board game sets ideal for adolescents.
Music Therapy
Like art therapy, music therapists have specific training and credentials. However, you can incorporate self expression through music into all kinds of therapies, including CBT, DBT, and solutions-focused therapy, among many others. Here are some ideas that may resonate with teens.
Creating Playlists
Music is built in therapy for many teens. With so much variety each person can explore and find the sounds and lyrics that connect best with them. Sharing favorite songs and talking about them is a great way for teens to communicate feelings and beliefs.
You can allow adolescents to initiate the process, or provide prompts such as finding a song that describes their anger, or creating a self-soothing playlist. Music exercises work great for one-on-one therapy or as group therapy activities.
Song Writing
For youth who are even more into music, song and music writing can be very powerful as well. This could begin with simple lyrics or poetry, or involve instruments if the individual is inclined. Think of it as lyrical journaling — a way to express experiences that words alone can’t do justice to.
Song writing can start with brainstorming and writing down emotions. From there teens can add familiar beats or background music to bring their words to life. Check out online tools that help with creating backgrounds for songs.
Mindfulness practices
You might think of mindfulness as a practice unique to adults who meditate or participate in yoga. However, they are excellent for helping teenage clients develop coping strategies.
Slow breathing
There are various deep breathing exercises and patterns, however the most helpful skill may simply be to breathe in slowly and breathe out even more slowly. The slow out breath is what calms the body and helps with stress and anxiety. It’s a good skill for young people to pull out during difficult situations.
Leaves on a stream
This exercise is sometimes called cognitive dissonance, but it’s also a type of mindfulness. The idea is to recognize your thoughts and then release them, as if they’re actually floating away in a stream.
You can learn this as a visualization technique, filling in the details of the stream and surrounding in your mind. Guide your clients in the exercise once or twice until they can do it on their own, or model it during a session to practice coping in the moment.
To make the process fun for teens, you can even try this fun online activity where you type in your thoughts and watch them float away.
Safe place
Creating a safe place (or multiple ones!) is a fun activity in and of itself. The process of imagining your ideal place is an expressive activity. Even better, creating the visualization can be used over and over, even for a lifetime, to help with self-soothing.
Safe places can include meadows, a secure room, trips to the beach, floating in the clouds, and much more. Only the client’s imagination limits what it might be. If one place is too confining, there’s nothing wrong with creating multiple safe places for different needs or triggers!
And the safe place can be updated over time. Lead the exercise as a meditation or art project where clients can actually depict the place in a picture, diorama, collage, or digital drawing.
Journaling prompts
Journaling is an amazing tool for working through trauma, anxiety, and angst. Teens can freewrite, just scribbling what comes to mind, or follow guided prompts. Prompts can be perfect therapy homework assignments, leading to healthy self expression.
You can even create an outline that will work for every day. Here’s an example:
Emotional Check-Ins
These basic check-ins can help jumpstart more open-ended journaling:
What are you feeling today?
What are your frequent thoughts about today?
What problems are you working through?
What "win" did you have today?
What fun or soothing activities have you, or would you like to try?
Gratitude Journaling
If you’d like to employ positive psychology, you might consider teaching teens how to practice gratitude. Consider these gratitude prompts:
What are you thankful for today?
What things went well today?
Who was helpful in your day?
What fun thing can you look forward to tomorrow?
This is just a starter list for therapy activities for teens! Although this can be a uniquely challenging group to work with, it can also be one of the most flexible. You can pull from younger as well as adult activities depending on the adolescent’s needs and preferences.
Allow these ideas to be a start as you expand your own toolbox of therapy activities!
Sources
Christian, R. (2019). Sandplay therapy: An overview of theory, applications and evidence base. The Arts in Psychology.
Liu, C., Chen, H., Liu, C. Y., Lin, R. T., & Chiou, W. K. (2020). Cooperative and Individual Mandala Drawing Have Different Effects on Mindfulness, Spirituality, and Subjective Well-Being. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 564430.
About the Author
Jennie Lannette Bedsworth is a licensed therapist and the creator of The Counseling Palette, a trusted source for therapy games, group therapy activities, and printables. With two decades of experience in the mental health field, Jennie designs resources that make therapy engaging, effective, and accessible for all ages. Ready to transform your sessions? Explore our collection of therapy tools at The Counseling Palette.
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