What Changes During Adolescence?

Find a therapist to support kids and teens

Psychotherapy takes place within a social context of modern life.

if modern life is rubbish, how can we hold hope in psychotherapy?

We need to look to the past to understand the present and prepare for tomorrow.

Modern Life Is Rubbish was the title of the 1993 studio album from Britpop Indie band Blur. It was the working title of my book You're Not My F*cking Mother: And other things Gen Z say in therapy (2024).1 With the addition of the bracketed [Or is it?], "Modern Life Is Rubbish" was the title of my opening keynote at this year’s British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BCAP) Children, Young People and Families Conference, and now it’s the title of my new page here. In this, my first post for Psychology Today, I will explain why I’ve become attached to this phrase.

I love Blur, and so it’s inevitable that I’m influenced by their music. My previous book, Stop F*cking Nodding and other things 16-year-olds say in therapy (2022),2 was always going to be called Stop F*cking Nodding; I had the title in mind long before I began writing the book. You’re Not My F*cking Mother came hot on its heels because I still had more to say about the contemporary themes that young adults bring........

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