In individual psychotherapy, we work through problems by paying close attention to your experience: your feelings, thoughts, history, physical sensations.  Keep in mind that individual work can change relationships in the "real word":  the inventor of family therapy viewed every web of relationships as a system, such that changing one element of the system (a single person) was also changing the entire system.  

Some things to keep in mind are that we shouldn't believe everything we think (yes, like the bumper sticker).  The givens in our psyche are often invisible; one goal of therapy is to be surprised about what you think.  It's not that it's unknown, simply not thought about.  Also bear in mind that we are inherently logical within ourselves; it is often our refusal to acknowledge our gut reactions that leaves us puzzled about strange behavior.  The rule of thumb is that if we don't understand why you're making some choice, we're still missing some essential pices of your gut-level experience.  This is to say that our internal world is true, and that the external world is also true, much in the same way that a child's teddy bear is a real person and also not. 

I work with adolescents who are 14-17.  There isn't any substantial difference from the work I do with adults, but the limits of confidentiality are more specific.  A parent or guardian has a legal right, of course, to know what their son or daughter shares with me in session, but I think this works against the development of a trusting relationship.  Except in circumstances of possible danger, I work with minors only if their parent/guardian agrees that I won't pass on any information from session except in emergent situations.