Youth Flooding the Mental Healthcare System

October 6, 2025

Nicole Runyon, Author & Psychotherapist, Book Author, Keynote Speaker

Tom O'Connor, Publisher

Author Nicole Runyon, LMSW, is a renowned psychotherapist, author, and keynote speaker, esteemed for her expertise in child and adolescent mental health. Nicole's best-selling book, " Free to Fly: The Secret to Fostering Independence in the Next Generation," sheds light on the urgent mental health crisis among today's youth. She offers parents a clear path to reclaim their children's mental health and build resilience in the face of this pressing issue.

According to Nicole Runyon:

Therapy doesn't help them. Medication doesn't help them. The current youth mental health infrastructure falls woefully short of addressing the ever-growing demand, and we will never meet this level of need. A profound exploration of the issue is imperative, pinpointing the fundamental triggers behind the mental health crisis. The answer lies within the family unit—a proactive approach is needed to equip children with early coping mechanisms, foster resilience, and promote development without excessive technology. 

Empowering parents with the tools they need to navigate the challenges of a technology-saturated culture is crucial. By understanding the evolutionary journey that has brought us to this point, we can reshape the landscape for the current generation and guide them towards a healthier relationship with technology.

It's time to separate technology from education, family dynamics, and our children's social lives. Protecting their formative years is our key to averting the alarming surge in mental health complications we currently face.

Nicole Runyon's Story

I have known I wanted to be a child psychotherapist since I was a child myself. 

When I was eight, I thought I would become a pediatrician or a child psychologist. However, it wasn't until I was 10 that an incident set me on the path to becoming a child psychologist. My youngest brother was a clumsy one-year-old who had fallen and scraped his knee. Imagine this little girl cleaning her brother's wound, applying antibiotic cream to it, and bandaging it for him, all the while feeling a pit in her stomach. It wasn't nausea at the sight of blood but a sensation I couldn't name at the time. 

I have since come to understand that this feeling was empathy. It was at that moment that I decided I couldn't possibly be a pediatrician, marking the beginning of my journey to psychotherapy. 

Today's Generation of Children

All I ever wanted was to be a private practice therapist. Still, when I began seeing children with severe mental illness that had no basis in any psychosocial explanation, I asked myself what was going on with today's generation of children. 

In the absence of any trauma, I started to realize that these issues were rooted in:

• The widespread toxic culture of "gentle" parenting

• Children's lack of independence and overuse of digital technology

• Parents' inability to deal with their children's discomfort

I want to show parents that they can give their children what they need without overindulging their wants.

I'm on a mission to address the youth mental healthcare crisis among the iGeneration.

For many years, I have lived with this frustrating reality: there will never be enough psychotherapists to meet the needs of our children. My colleagues and I have turned away desperate parents for years simply because we did not have space for new patients.

I estimated that 70% of my practice consisted of kids who did not need therapy but whose parents needed coaching.

Which meant that so many other kids who needed psychotherapy could not get help. I don't want to see any more children in pain.

I want:

• To empower parents to understand why their children are struggling and to provide them with the tools to help. It's crucial for parents to understand their children's struggles, as this understanding fosters a deeper connection and empathy, which are essential for effective support. 

• To prevent more children from overwhelming the mental health system.

• Parents must know that this information is necessary for their child's growth and development.

  
  

Parents' Insurmountable Challenges

Parents today face insurmountable challenges. Unlike previous generations, parents now contend with the significant influence of contemporary culture on their children. That's why I've developed a four-part framework for parents to provide their children with what they need and navigate the complex waters of childhood. My goal is to prevent future mental health issues in the alpha generation and to assist parents of Generation Z in helping them through their current struggles. Parents play a crucial role in this prevention, and they should feel empowered and responsible for their children's mental health. 

As a child psychotherapist, what if I told you most children in therapy and/or seeing a psychiatrist for medication shouldn't be treated in the mental health system?

Before I made a paradigm shift in my practice, I estimated that 70% of the children I was seeing for therapy were children whose parents needed help. Instead, the children were labeled with a pathology. Children with no prior history of mental health issues, no trauma, an intact family, and loving, supportive parents.

Ten-Year-Old Child Example

Before I started coaching parents, I received a lot of referrals for 10-year-old children with anxiety symptoms.

Overwhelmingly, these referrals were due to children being unable to resolve a developmental stage known as the 9-year change. Around nine, children develop a consciousness of themselves outside the family. There is a natural emotional separation from parents and family of origin that yields anxiety symptoms. This is normal and should not be considered pathological or diagnosed. The separation from parents, while scary and confusing, indicates that the child needs more independence. If not given freedom, they enter middle childhood (9-12) unresolved and lacking trust in themselves.

This is an excellent time for children to find their way to and from friends' houses, trust themselves to cook a meal for the family, make mistakes, and experience the natural consequences. Most kids will love their newfound independence, and their separation anxiety will dissipate because independence is a natural curve in this phase of development. An adolescent and a bike make a great combination!

What happens to most of today's kids during this time? They receive a smart device that parents consider a means of "safety" to stay in touch with them. This is the WORST time to give a smart device because normal anxiety should be understood and worked through, not avoided and given dopamine. Also, if the child is on a device, they are not gaining independence in the real world.

Parents should be aware of what is happening to their children and support them through it, offering help when needed. By 10, since most parents aren't aware of this and their kids are using smart devices to avoid the discomfort of growing up, the child begins displaying symptoms of anxiety that appear to need mental health treatment.

Suddenly, the child is the "problem" and begins over-attaching to their anxiety diagnosis. They become dependent on their parents, teachers, and the therapist—the exact opposite of what they need at this point in their lives.

Our children are the canaries in the coal mine. They are telling us something about their behaviors and their mental health symptoms, and we must listen!

I don't see the 10-year-old with anxiety. I work with parents to help them overcome their discomfort with letting their children separate. No diagnosis. No medication. No dependence on a therapist. No school accommodations. No need for the child to ever think there is something wrong with them!

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Nicole Runyon, LMSW, Psychotherapist and Parent Coach, can be reached at:

www.nicolerunyon.com

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