Child Therapy
Children Individual Therapy - Ages 3-10
Does your child have trouble dealing with their emotions? Is their behavior sometimes disruptive to your home life? Have they experienced sudden loss or trauma?
As they grow, children and adolescents develop social skills and emotional intelligence. This awareness helps them to develop into healthy, happy, and successful individuals. But some children have trouble processing their emotions and this often leads to behavior that negatively impacts their school life, home life, and overall well-being.
When we work with young children, we work with them on their level - using neuroscience to utilize the language of metaphor and play. We use evidence-based interventions to work with your child to use their emotional language, expand their self-control, and utilize their coping skills in order to help them better manage their feelings and behavior.
These sessions are typically 45-50 minutes, depending on the child's age.
Updates on progress towards clinical goals or new parental concerns are done during parent sessions - private from the child's sessions. Parent sessions allow our counselors to teach the neurobiology behind their child's behavior, learn how to support the child at home, and to give parents an opportunity to report on their child's behavior witnessed at home or school.
Some of the areas we specialize in with children:
- Adjustment to Change
- ADHD
- Anger Management
- Anxiety
- Behavior/Acting Out
- Body Image
- Bullying
- Depression
- Divorce
- Grief/Loss
- Self-Esteem
- Self-Control
- Self-Harm
Effective Forms of Therapy for Children and Adolescents
Therapy offers children and adolescents a safe space to work through their thoughts and emotions. With the help of a specialized therapist, children can resolve problems, modify behaviors, and make positive and lasting changes.
The following are a few different types of psychotherapy available to children and families. Each offers unique approaches and techniques to bring about positive outcomes. Sometimes a therapist may choose to use just one specific treatment, and other times he or she may find a combination of various treatments is the best approach.
Play Therapy
Play therapy is especially appropriate for children ages 3 through 12 years old. Play therapy allows children to change the way they think about, feel toward, and resolve their concerns. Even the most troubling problems can be confronted in play therapy and lasting resolutions can be discovered, rehearsed, mastered and adapted into lifelong strategies. Learn more about Play therapy here.
Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT)
CBT helps children to identify harmful thought patterns. Once a child recognizes that their thoughts create their feelings and moods, they can learn to control themselves and their behavior. Research has shown that CBT is highly effective at treating depression and anxiety as well as helping individuals, including children, deal with traumatic experiences. Our therapists utilize Cognitive Behavioral Play Therapy as part of our many interventions in play therapy.
Family Therapy
Family therapy is great for helping families improve communication so they can resolve issues. Sessions can include the entire family, including children, siblings, parents, and grandparents, or just one or two individuals.
Who is Therapy Right for?
At every age, children can be faced with life’s challenges. Providing treatment early can dramatically improve both the child and the family's quality of life, and sets a child up for a better understanding of themselves and their own capacity to heal and cope with life's difficulties.
Therapy is not a quick fix to a child’s behavioral or emotional issues. It is instead a thoughtful and comprehensive process that provides children with insights and skills so that they may become masters of their thoughts and feelings. This, in essence, is how children develop into happy, healthy, and successful adults.
If you would like to explore treatment options for your child, please give my office a call.