Teenagers are not broken adults.
They are people in the middle of one of the most disorienting transitions a human being goes through, and they are doing it largely without a roadmap. Some handle it fine. Others hit a wall. And a lot of parents spend months trying to figure out which category their kid is in before they reach out for help.
If you are a parent reading this because something feels off, you are probably not overreacting. And if you are a teenager reading this because someone sent you a link here, or because you found it yourself, that took something.
Either way, you are in the right place.
Who Does This Work At VCS
Adolescent and teen counseling at VCS is led by Cleo Chalk, LPC.
Cleo is the only adolescent specialist on the VCS team. A lot of practices have clinicians who “also see teens.” That is not the same as someone whose work was built around this population.
A session with Cleo does not feel like a clinical evaluation being led by “another adult” authority figure. It feels like an honest conversation with someone who is genuinely in your corner. No expectations here. No judgment waiting on the other side of honesty. He creates space where people can say the real thing, not the polished version of it.
That said, he will push when pushing is what the work calls for. The goal is growth, not just a comfortable hour.
One more thing worth knowing: healing does not always have to be heavy. Cleo believes a well-timed laugh can be just as useful as a deep revelation.
Cleo works in-person at the Burke, Virginia office and virtually for Virginia residents.
What Cleo Works With
For Teens
Cleo works with adolescents navigating a wide range of situations, including:
- Anxiety, depression, and mood that is getting harder to manage
- Substance use, whether that is experimentation that has started to concern you, or something more established
- Social struggles, identity questions, and the pressure of figuring out who you are
- Family conflict and the feeling that nobody at home actually gets it
- School stress, motivation, and the weight of expectations
- Processing trauma or difficult experiences that have not gone anywhere
The teens who tend to do well with Cleo are not necessarily the ones who arrive wanting to be there. Some of his best work has happened with clients who showed up skeptical. What matters is being willing to be honest, even when that is uncomfortable.
For Adults
Cleo also works with adults, particularly around substance use. If you are an adult navigating your own relationship with substances and what you have read about his approach resonates, he works with you too.
A Note For Parents
Finding the right fit for your teenager is not straightforward.
You are not just looking for a clinician who is credentialed. You are looking for someone your kid will actually talk to. Those are very different searches.
Cleo understands that world specifically. He knows what it is like to be a teenager who needed help and could not find someone who felt like the right person. He built his practice around closing that gap.
A few things parents often ask:
Will Cleo tell me what my teenager says in sessions? Confidentiality applies to minors with some important exceptions. If there is a safety concern, Cleo will tell you what you need to know. Otherwise, the privacy of the therapeutic relationship is what makes it safe for your teenager to actually use it. If your teenager does not trust that the space is private, the work does not happen.
Cleo will tell you what you need to know. He will not narrate every session.
What if my teenager does not want to come? Ambivalence about starting is normal. A teenager who arrives resistant is not automatically a teenager who stays resistant. Cleo is good with the ones who do not want to be there at first.
That said, if your teenager is fully closed off and you are looking for somewhere to process what you are dealing with as a parent, Cleo can work with you individually on that too. You do not have to wait for your teenager to be ready before you get support.
How do I know if what I am seeing is a phase or something more serious? That is genuinely one of the harder questions in adolescent work, and the honest answer is that it depends. Substance use that is becoming a regular feature of your teenager’s life rather than isolated experimentation, grades declining sharply, withdrawal from people and activities they used to care about, rapid changes in mood or behavior. Any of those in combination are worth taking seriously.
You do not need certainty to make a call. If something feels off, that feeling is enough.
How Cleo Approaches Substance Use
Cleo works from a harm reduction lens, which means he meets clients where they actually are, not where a protocol says they should be.
There is no predetermined finish line. There is no version of the situation that is too messy to start from. He works with what is real.
For teenagers, this is especially important. A 16-year-old who is smoking marijuana every weekend is in a different clinical situation than a 16-year-old whose use has escalated to the point of affecting every part of their life. Treating those situations identically does not serve either kid.
Cleo does not moralize or lecture. He helps the person in front of him understand what is driving the behavior and what, if anything, they want to do about it. That conversation tends to go further than the alternatives.
Ready to start?
Teen and adolescent counseling at VCS is available in-person in Burke, Virginia and virtually across Virginia.
Getting started is straightforward. Reach out through the form below or contact us directly. If you are a parent making the first call, that is fine. If you are a teenager reaching out yourself, that is fine too. The first step is just a conversation.
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