Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy/Counseling
Does your child or adolescent 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 and adolescents have trouble processing their emotions and this often leads to behavior that negatively impacts their school life, home life and overall well-being. Therapy offers children and adolescents a safe space to work through their thoughts and emotions. With the help of a specialized therapist, children and adolescents can resolve problems, modify behaviors, and make positive and lasting changes.
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 and adolescents can resolve problems, modify behaviors, and make positive and lasting changes.
The following are a few different types of psychotherapy available to children and adolescents. 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.
Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT)
CBT helps children and adolescents to identify harmful thought patterns. Once a child or adolescent 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 and adolescents, deal with traumatic experiences.
Psychodynamic Therapy
Psychodynamic therapy is a form of psychotherapy that focuses on understanding and resolving unconscious conflicts and early childhood experiences that may be influencing a person's current thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.
Trauma Informed Therapy
Trauma-informed psychotherapy is a clinical mindset and approach that recognizes the widespread impact of trauma on individuals and seeks to create a safe, trustworthy, and empowering environment for healing by avoiding re-traumatization. It shifts focus from asking "what's wrong with you?" to "what happened to you?" and prioritizes collaboration, choice, safety, trustworthiness, and empowerment in care. Key goals include helping clients regulate emotions, build coping skills, process traumatic memories, and regain a sense of control over their lives.
Who is Therapy Right for?
At every age, children and adolescents can be faced with life’s challenges. The following are some of the events and scenarios that can impact a child or adolescent's mental health and well-being:
- The death of a loved one
- Bullying
- Physical or sexual abuse
- Domestic violence
- Moving or attending a new school
- Divorce
- Anxiety
- Depression
- ADHD
Therapy is not a quick fix to a child or adolescent's behavioral or emotional issues. It is instead a thoughtful and comprehensive process that provides children and adolescents with insights and skills so that they may become masters of their thoughts and feelings. This, in essence, is how children and adolescents develop into happy, healthy, and successful adults.
If you would like to explore treatment options for your child or adolescent, please give our office a call.