A two-hour workshop for teenagers
We won't tell your teenager to get off their phone.
They have heard it from you, from school, from everyone. It hasn't worked yet. Off the screen asks them something different — and teenagers answer it.
Not therapy. Not a lecture. Your teen leaves with one decision written in their own hand.
- Where
- Online, live
- Ages
- 13–17
The part nobody says out loud
You took the phone away. It worked for four days.
Then the arguing started again, and by then it was about the rule rather than the phone. New timings. A password changed. A tablet nobody had thought of.
You are not doing it wrong. Rules work on behaviour you can see, and this isn't a behaviour problem.
Here is the part worth saying plainly, once: a teenager who never practises deciding anything becomes an adult who finds it very hard to start.
What is actually happening
The phone isn't the problem. It's the one place that says I decide.
School, studies, timetables — those are settled, and we don't open them up. A teenager needs them and so do you.
But inside every week there are hours that genuinely belong to your teenager. Most teenagers don't choose those hours. The hours simply pass.
The phone fills them, because choosing there costs nothing and the choice is instant.
So we don't ask them to give something up. We ask what they'd pick if the hours were theirs on purpose. Most have never been asked.
Inside the session
Six moves, one question underneath.
Your teen writes throughout. Nobody reads what they write — not us, not you.
- 01
One question, written privately
If you could change one thing about your life right now, what would it be? Not the answer a parent would give. Their own.
- 02
The same traffic jam
Two people, same delay, same heat. One is driving, one is in the back seat. We work out why only one of them is furious.
- 03
Who is holding the wheel
They map an ordinary week and mark where they decide, where they have some say, and where they don't. Seeing it laid out does most of the work.
- 04
The trade nobody mentions
More freedom asks for more responsibility. More trust asks for becoming trustworthy. Not a punishment — just the exchange rate, at every age.
- 05
Why "get off your phone" never worked
We say the quiet part out loud, and it lands better coming from someone who isn't their parent.
- 06
One area. One choice. This week.
Small enough to survive a bad week. Written down, in their words, before they leave.
What your teen leaves with
Something on paper, not a good feeling.
A workshop that ends in inspiration and nothing else is entertainment. These are the four things that go home.
- A map of their own week — where they decide, where they have some say, where they don't.
- One specific choice for the coming week, in their handwriting, with a way to know whether they did it.
- A different sentence for the phone argument — which tends to lower the temperature at home within days.
- The workbook, to keep. Yours only if they choose to show you.
Before you book
What this workshop is not.
We would rather you knew now than found out afterwards.
- Not a screen-time lecture. We never ask a teenager to give up their phone, and we don't shame anyone for their hours.
- Not therapy. We work on choices and responsibility — not diagnosis or treatment. If something needs a professional, we will say so.
- Not a report on your child. We don't tell you what your teen wrote or said. That is the reason they speak at all.
- Not a fix in one session. This starts something. What happens next is theirs, and it takes longer than an afternoon.
The practical bit
How to tell your teenager about it.
You are about to book something your teen may resist. How you mention it decides whether they arrive curious or braced for a lecture. Say less than you want to.
Try this
"I found a workshop. It's not about your phone, and it's not a lecture. Two hours. Have a look and tell me if you want to go."
"Nobody reports back to me. Whatever you write there is yours."
Avoid
- "I've booked something that will help you with your screen time." — they will arrive defended.
- Booking it as a consequence of an argument.
- Asking, afterwards, what they wrote.
A teenager who chooses to attend gets far more from the room than one who was sent. If yours refuses, wait a week and mention it once more. Then leave it.
Who runs it
Manu Gupta
I was the child nobody worried about. Polite, obedient, no trouble to anyone. Every relative said the same sentence about me — so well brought up.
In my thirties I was reading a book and hit a line about asking for what you want in life, and realised I could not remember ever having done it. Not my subjects. Not my work. Not the largest decision of my life. It had all been handed to me, and I had said thank you.
What I felt wasn't regret. It was relief — because it had never been a flaw in me. It was a lesson nobody had taught me, and nobody teaches it at fifteen either.
That is the whole reason Arth exists. I work with teenagers so that fewer of them learn this at thirty-five, alone, from a paperback.
— Manu
On proof
This workshop is new.
Rather than borrow testimonials or quote numbers we cannot stand behind, we would rather say that plainly and let the first families judge it for themselves.
Details
One session. A small room.
Off the screen
per teenager
- LengthTwo hours, live
- WhereOnline, live · Zoom
- Ages13–17
- BringPaper and a pen
Parents book. Teenagers attend on their own — we ask that you aren't in the room.
Questions parents ask
Before you decide.
My teenager will refuse to attend.
Many do at first. Show them this page rather than describing it yourself, and use the words above — particularly that nobody reports back to you. If they still say no, leave it a week and mention it once more. A teenager who is sent arrives defended and takes far less from the room than one who chose to come.
Will you tell me what my child said?
No. Not what they wrote, not what they said, not how they seemed. That confidentiality is the reason teenagers speak at all, and breaking it once would end the value of the work. The single exception is safety: if something suggests a young person is at risk of harm, we will act on it and involve the right adult. We tell the teenagers that too, at the start, in plain words.
Is this therapy or counselling?
No. This is coaching on choices, responsibility and self-direction. We do not diagnose, treat, or work with mental health conditions. If a teenager needs that kind of support, we say so and point towards a qualified professional.
Can I sit in?
We ask that you don't. A teenager will not speak honestly about their own choices while a parent is watching, and one silent adult changes what the whole group is willing to say. You will get a short note afterwards about what the group worked on — themes only, never individuals.
What if they don't speak at all?
That's allowed, and it's common. Nobody is called on by name and nobody is made to turn a camera on. Most of the work is written rather than spoken. A quiet teenager who fills in their sheets has done the entire workshop.
Will it reduce their screen time?
We don't promise that, because we don't control it and neither do you. What we have seen is that arguments about the phone get shorter once a teenager has somewhere else in their week that feels like theirs. If a guaranteed drop in hours is what you're after, this isn't the right workshop and we would rather say so.
Off the screen
One session. One question they've never been asked.
Not a lecture, and not a lecture in disguise. Just a different way of looking at the hours that are already theirs.
Online, live · ages 13–17
Book a seat
Off the screen · 1499/-