Child Therapy
Would You Like Help Understanding Your Child?
Does your child have difficulty with constant worry?
Have they been overwhelmed with feelings of perfectionism or upsetting, repeated thoughts about future events?
Perhaps they seem burdened by worries about the pandemic or social issues stemming from online learning.
Does he or she seem sad, withdrawn, or down?
Perhaps you feel like your child is distant or lacks interest in activities that used to give them joy.
Or, maybe your child has trouble socializing or making friends, and you don’t know how to help them.
Is your child having tantrums, being defiant, or having trouble following through with basic activities?
Do you feel frustrated with your child’s unwillingness to listen to you or follow through with simple tasks?
Is your son or daughter resistant to changes in routine or overtly aggressive?
Do you wish you could enjoy family outings or social events with your children again?
If any of this sounds like your child, it is likely that you’ve been frustrated, confused, and just plain overwhelmed at times. You may even feel time with your child is exhausting your patience. You may feel like you are walking on eggshells, going great distances to avoid outbursts and emotional fits. You wish you could figure out how to help your child. You may even worry that rather than helping, your responses may be exacerbating the situation and you don’t know what else to do. You wish that you could help your child control their behavior and worry that they won’t live up to their potential if things continue on this path.
Whatever your concerns and whatever obstacles your son or daughter faces, you don’t have to struggle in isolation. Would you like to gain a better understanding of your child’s behavior and gain the necessary tools and skills to improve their well-being and set them on a path for success?
Many Parents Struggle to Help Their Children
All parents struggle from time to time; however, if you are trying to help your child overcome behavioral, emotional, social or academic challenges, it can seem like an unending cycle of trial and error. And, because kids often struggle to verbalize what’s wrong and how to fix it, you may be reading and trying different approaches with little success. This can be discouraging.
Indeed, according to the National Survey on Children’s Mental Health approximately 1 in 6 children ages 6 to 17 struggle with a treatable mental health problem such as depression, anxiety problems or attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. An even larger number of children struggle with sub-clinical levels of psychological concerns such as worry, sadness, loneliness, perfectionism, and difficulty paying attention.
A child may be suffering internally but not have the words to communicate what is going on. Behavioral challenges are often the result of these internal struggles and they can manifest in various ways. As a result, parents aren’t always able to understand the problem. For instance, if your child is dealing with ADHD, it could look as if they are intentionally being disruptive or disobedient. Or, a learning disability might make it seem like your child is merely refusing to do homework or class assignments. Further, depression in children can take on the appearance of disinterest or apathy. So, it is imperative that you partner with a trained professional to understand what your child is truly experiencing.
Understanding the underlying factors contributing to your child’s challenges is the first step toward helping them make positive changes in their outlook and behavior. With the help of a child therapist, you and your child can develop the insights, tools and strategies needed to overcome the challenges and succeed.
Child Counseling Can Provide You With Answers
Working with a licensed psychotherapist at Larsen Behavioral Wellness can help identify strengths and weaknesses in your child’s development. Using that information, we can build on your child’s strengths while we work on learning any new skills that will benefit your child and help them to thrive. For parents, learning new techniques to increase children’s positive behaviors is key. Discipline strategies can also be effective in eliminating unwanted behaviors.
We’ll begin our time together with an intake appointment that is designed to explore the particular challenges your child is experiencing. We’ll look at the history and course of their issues, taking care to discern whether a mental health condition, developmental issue or cognitive problem is causing your child’s distress. With that information we will discuss treatment options and work together to determine goals and a treatment plan.
Depending on their age and developmental level, we may work with your child individually or with you present in family psychotherapy sessions. In both cases, we will be working on building research proven skills, learning new ways of responding, and improving emotional communication and regulation skills. Family sessions allow you to be present so that you can learn along with your child skills and strategies to overcome negative emotions like excessive worry, sadness, frustration, anger, and guilt. However, regardless of what sessions look like, we can provide healthy stress management skills for you, as a parent, as well as targeted guidance for your child’s needs.
Our treatment plan is tailored to each individual child and family. Often children respond well to art and play therapy, to encourage them to communicate their feelings while addressing socialization and interaction skills. Or, if your child is struggling with outbursts and tantrums, we might focus on strengthening emotional self-regulation skills while also having family meeting to address how to avoid triggers and de-escalate the situation.
Similarly, if your child is dealing with depression, we can offer cognitive strategies to help reframe negative perceptions so they can see themselves and the world in a more helpful way. Or, we may teach your son or daughter how to calm uncomfortable physical sensations so that they are not overwhelmed by anxiety and stress. We often use journaling as a method to keep track of progress in between and across sessions.
In other words, therapy can help for a multitude of struggles and complaints. Even though you may feel confused, frustrated, or powerless to help your child, you truly can make a difference. Child therapy can provide you with a wealth of resources, guidance and insight that can help your son or daughter manage their emotions, change their style of thinking, and behave better. You, as a parent, can open up a new world of opportunities for your child.
I am considering child counseling, but I still have some concerns…
I’m worried my child will reduced to a label.
We understand your concerns and we don’t like reductionistic labels either. Children are multifaceted, and their issues are complicated by many external circumstances (school, family, and community). Labels are reductionistic and often misused to describe a child’s struggles as something inherently wrong with them. That is why we avoid labeling children with mental health diagnosis unless specifically asked by parents. We will discuss our observations with you and work with you to come to a complete understanding of your child’s strengths and weaknesses, including any diagnoses we think may be appropriate. Your privacy and confidentiality are strictly protected. We would never share diagnoses with a school or insurance company without your explicit consent to do so. The reality is, regardless of the label, if your child is suffering intervention is critical; the more you help them overcome their challenges now, the better-equipped they will be to handle future challenges on their own.
I don’t know if I can fit this into our schedule.
One of the benefits of working with us is our clinic’s flexibility. We understand that your child is busy with school and that you are occupied with other commitments. We don’t want to add stress to your plate, and that is why we also offer extended hours. In fact, most of our sessions take place in the after school or on the weekends. We offer teletherapy options and, in fact, some of the therapies offered are just as effective when given to you over the internet as they are in person. You’d be amazed at how much children open up when they are in the comfort their natural environment. So, regardless of your schedule, we can work to accommodate your needs.
Is therapy something my kid will have to do forever?
Many people fear that therapy is an unending process which is far from the case. Indeed, some children may benefit from or even desire a longer duration of therapy, just as some adults do. However, because we focus on research backed therapy modalities that teach skills and applying them to your real life problems, we can often make progress in just a few short weeks. We use the best, most cutting edge therapies to help you in the shortest amount of time possible.
Helping Your Child Is Possible
If you are concerned about your child’s development, counseling can offer you answers and support. Please call 201 639 3361 or contact us for a free, 15-minute consultation. We would be happy to address any reservations or questions you may have about our approach to child therapy.