My parents' presences seem to make me self-conscious and insecure. Any advice?

I’ll try to keep this short.
I’m 16.
I’ve been noticing this for a while… In certain situations, I find it hard to make eye contact with people. I’ll listen to what they’re saying, but I’ll concentrate on the wall, or my shoe, or a hangnail. It’s kind of hard to describe the type of situation I’m talking about. Most often, someone’s confronting me about something. It happens in other instances, as well, but confrontation is the big issue.

When my parents are around (especially when they are the ones confronting me), I really have trouble making eye contact. It’s nearly impossible.

When they aren’t present, though, I can make eye contact. It does still take willpower to take my eyes off the ground and look some people in the eye, but I can do it! (I think it’s just a matter of practice in these situations.) I resolve issues much more easily in these instances and forge good relationships with these people.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about this issue, and I’ve boiled it down to my parents. They’re great parents and everything, but something about their presence makes me self-conscious and insecure. It’s like I don’t want to let them see what’s truly going on inside my head, although I’m not really hiding anything from them.

I can’t figure this out and it’s really frustrating. I need to get down to the heart of it, though, and get it resolved quickly, because the career path I’m thinking about requires an ability to connect with people (counseling of some sort). Being an important part in someone’s life as they go through a hard time is the most fulfilling thing I’ve ever experienced, and I really think it’d be a great career. But I need to get over this first. :/

Thanks for any insight you might have, as well as advice!

P.S. Woops – it wasn’t as short as I had been hoping. Sorry.