Child TherapyChildren and adolescents communicate more through their behavior than through words. Therefore, child therapy uses age-appropriate methods of communicating with your child, often through play and non-verbal expressions such a art work, sand tray, and playing games. Play therapy and art work can open the doorway to feeling expression, and this can assist your child in labeling their feelings, & find emotional relief through their play. This then creates the basis for healing emotional and behavioral difficulties.
Children need the time and space to feel safe and develop a relationship with their therapist, and in time can find the outlet of therapy very healing and transforming as they, along with their therapist, begin to explore and understand their inner word and outer behavior. Often times parents and other family members are invited to participate in treatment, and family therapy sessions may be scheduled in addition to individual child therapy. This is because a child's behavior operates within the family system, and so family sessions can help to understand and heal the family as a whole. |
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Issues Of Treatment for ChildrenChildhood depression—often expressed through anger and acting out.
Peer and/or family relationship problems. Truancy or rule defiance. Anxiety and psychosomatic problems. Children adjusting to divorce or parent separation. Separation anxiety, or overly clingy behavior, & socially withdrawn. Anger and hostility, sibling, or peer conflict. Poor school performance or non-compliance with school related activities. Inappropriate social behavior. (Some of the issues that can be effectively treated through child therapy) |
Family TherapyFamily therapy is also offered in conjunction with the child's therapy, if needed.
Families often need help in times of stress and/or changing circumstances. Family therapy views the family as a unit, where each member impacts, and is impacted by, all the other members, including extended family members. Therefore difficulty with any one member of that family—including a child's difficulties, can sometimes be addressed by exploring how a family interacts and relates to one another. Sometimes individual or couples treatment may be suggested in addition to the child's therapy, depending on the issues being explored. Regardless of the unit of treatment, family therapy can greatly improve the ways a family communicates, deals with issues, stress, or crisis, and families can be taught how to change patterns of relating in order to create more harmonious and effective family functioning. |
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Issues of Treatment for FamiliesHelping a family effectively deal with conflict or stress.
Helping blended families to adjust to changes. Assisting families in dealing with divorce and separation. Assisting parents in establishing their authority and discipline with their children. Developing closer relationships and healthier boundaries within the family. Helping families deal with loss and/or bereavement. Assisting families with a child's emancipation and transition into adulthood and independence. (Some of the issues that can be effectively dealt with in family therapy) |
