Trauma Therapy for Children in New York
When a child experiences a traumatic event, it can be challenging for parents to spot initial signs of distress. Every child’s response to trauma can appear different on the outside, so seeking treatment is critical in helping them open up and start processing their feelings. The process can take a long time, but know that help is on your side.
Learn the signs of trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in children and teens, and where to seek treatment.
Understanding Trauma in Children
When a person has constant struggles with scary thoughts and memories of a past event, it is referred to as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
PTSD can occur in response to a car accident, natural disaster or physical ordeal. It can be accompanied by depression, anxiety and substance abuse issues. There is a tremendous amount of guilt and feelings of helplessness at not being able to change the past event. This can make your child feel like they are incapable of managing future events, not necessarily even like what they endured.
Doubt, insecurity and fear keep them from believing they are safe and capable of taking chances. They may turn to substances that help them mask the pain. They are no longer the same child. Instead, they are a shell of their past self, whose exterior is so tough it’s hard to get through to the carefree and happy child you used to know.
Types of Traumatic Events
Traumatic events can take the form of abuse at the hands of a stranger or loved one, a horrific ordeal, such as a car accident or encounter with a vicious animal, or the loss of someone close. It can also happen slowly over time, such as experiencing bullying by a classmate or dysfunction in the home. Examples of traumatic events that could lead to the development of PTSD include:
- Physical, sexual or emotional abuse or bullying.
- Being the victim of or witness to violence.
- Natural disasters, like floods or earthquakes.
- Serious accidents, like a car or plane crash.
- The death of a close family member or friend.
- Witnessing a traumatic event, even if not directly involved.
The event might have happened recently or years ago, but it may seem like it’s still happening — keeping your child tethered to the past. This is because, big or small, the traumatic situation has left such a lasting and significant impression that new experiences become tainted and unmanageable. It’s also important to note that not every child exposed to trauma will develop PTSD.
Signs of PTSD in Children
PTSD can manifest as mood swings and irritability, withdrawing from loved ones and nightmares and flashbacks. For your child, it might feel like the pain is just too much to bear, and there is no amount of consolation that can put them at ease. Unfortunately, the result of these negative emotions is often your child feeling helpless and alone.
Look out for these warning signs of PTSD:
- Emotional distress: Guilt, anger, frustration, anxiety, and despair are common reactions when dealing with trauma. These feelings occur suddenly in response to a situation that is like the one they endured, or the feelings may not appear for a while. Memories may flood them with emotions of guilt and shame about the past, depression and anxiety related to the traumatic event, or new stress-provoking activities.
- Avoidance of trauma-related reminders: Your child might avoid places, people, activities or even thoughts and feelings that remind them of the traumatic event for fear it will trigger distressful symptoms and flashbacks. This can impact their life immensely, affecting their ability to function at school, at home and in social situations.
- Physical symptoms: Your child may also experience physical symptoms such as hot or cold sweats, headaches, stomach aches and muscle tenseness.
- Nightmares or flashbacks: Your child may re-experience their trauma through nightmares or flashbacks.
- Regressive or risky behaviors: PTSD symptoms may cause your child to revert to past behaviors like bedwetting or thumb-sucking, while older children might show more aggression, have trouble concentrating or engage in risky behaviors like substance misuse, unsafe sexual practices or self-harm. This often stems from trouble managing stress and trauma reminders.
- Withdrawing from loved ones: You may also find your child pushing away loved ones who try to help them manage their emotions, so they can make progress toward their goals. For example, a child who has suffered abuse by a relative may be given comfort by their parents, but they are unable to accept this support. Instead, they withdraw or lash out with anger when their parents try to reassure them that they are safe.
Young children may experience crying spells, poor eating habits, difficulty concentrating, trouble sleeping and feelings of guilt and shame. Older kids may self-isolate, appear depressed, develop eating issues and experiment with illicit substances.
When to Seek Help
Reach out to a mental health professional if your child experiences PTSD symptoms that persist or interfere with their everyday life, including school performance and social interactions. The sooner you get help, the better. While some children may recover from trauma symptoms with reactions lessening over time, those who continue to experience symptoms can be diagnosed with PTSD.
A child trauma therapist can diagnose PTSD and develop an effective treatment option for your child’s unique situation and needs.
Available Treatment Approaches
While trauma and PTSD can be distressing for children and their families, the condition is treatable. At Courageous Kids Counseling, we provide many types of treatments to help children with PTSD, including:
- Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT): In CBT sessions, we’ll set agreed-upon goals with your child to replace any negative thought patterns they may have related to their trauma with productive, healthier ones.
- Dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT): DBT combines mindfulness techniques and CBT to help your child understand and accept complex emotions about trauma and move forward with healthier behaviors.
- Biofeedback: These sessions help your child relax and control physical symptoms of PTSD, like tension and restlessness.
- Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR): This is a treatment meant specifically for managing PTSD symptoms like dissociation, attachment and self-regulation issues. In these sessions, we might incorporate creative activities like drawing, storytelling or games to make it feel more like play than traditional therapy. This can help reduce the emotional impact of the trauma.
- Play therapy: Play can allow kids to open up about their feelings more easily, helping us understand their symptoms. It might involve telling stories and asking them if the situation matches their experience.
What Is PTSD Therapy Like for Kids?
When left untreated, PTSD difficulties can become worse and harder to manage. Therapy can start the process of allowing oneself to experience painful feelings. For a child, this is often the hardest part of therapy. Therapy for traumatic stress in children can involve:
- Confronting the trauma: Thinking about the trauma brings up unwanted memories and feelings. Bringing it to the surface means your child may “relive” the event as if it is happening now. It can be physically and emotionally painful to confront such an upsetting experience. Small steps are triumphant, even if things feel worse before they get better. Confronting trauma improves self-esteem.
- Embracing new thought patterns: When your child embraces new thinking patterns and manages their symptoms, they restore a sense of pride.
- Regaining control over feelings and actions: When we move past the guilt, your child recognizes that they had no control over past situations. But they do now. They realize they are in command, and the past cannot dictate their future feelings and actions.
- Building confidence and coping skills: PTSD therapy can help your child cultivate strengths and use them to disempower the thoughts and feelings that keep them stuck in the past. With a clear and in-control mind, they’ll be able to return to activities they once avoided. They will also gain greater satisfaction and a new feeling of purpose.
Courageous Kids Counseling’s Approach to PTSD Support
At Courageous Kids Counseling, we believe that healing starts with understanding. Understanding the signs of traumatic stress reactions is a vital part of treatment. In therapy, we bring trauma to the forefront of conversation, so your child will clearly understand its relationship to stress. Anytime your child gets stressed, they will know it is related to the trauma they experienced.
Through this awareness, they can steer away from negative reactions and toward more positive ways to manage. Or stress can provide a cue to help them get back on course if they are derailed. And most importantly, they will gain clarity to begin addressing the underlying negative thoughts and emotions that are defined by and kept relevant by the past traumatic event.
Benefits of Trauma Therapy for Kids
Imagine your child free from the chains that bind them. They are no longer forced to relive the effects of a horrendous event, such as a car accident. Benefits of PTSD treatment for kids can include:
- Improved outlook on life: Trauma therapy will help your child learn to see that they have no ability to change the past, but they lived through it and are here to talk about it. More importantly, they will learn to live through better and happier times.
- Renewed freedom and confidence: They return to school, strengthen friendships, and enjoy activities without restrictions. When the negative thoughts come up, they will “tell” the thoughts they are safe. They will use language that is bold and positive, such as “I am brave” and “I can face this.”
- Better sleep and physical well-being: Through trauma therapy, we will teach your child relaxation techniques and coping methods to help them feel more in control of their physical responses to PTSD and stress. This can lead to better sleep, daily functioning and overall physical wellness.
- Stronger family bonds and communication: Trauma therapy can help your child while strengthening your entire family bond. You can learn more about your child’s behaviors and emotions, while your child will learn how to open up and express themselves confidently and safely. We can help your family create shared language for discussing difficult experiences and empower you with specific ways to support your child’s healing.
- Empowerment and hope: In therapy, we will help your child own their story and recognize it’s just that, a memory of an unpleasant time in their life. By increasing positive thoughts and relinquishing the power the past has on them, their thinking will be clearer, and they will feel brighter and more empowered. Your child will be excited for a future full of endless potential.
Help Your Child Heal: Schedule a Trauma Therapy Consultation
In children and teens, early awareness of these challenges can prevent years of hardship. By understanding the experiences keeping kids stuck in the past, Courageous Kids Counseling can help them find ways to move forward, so they can get more joy and fulfillment from everyday situations.
They CAN overcome trauma to return to better times. Schedule an appointment with us today to start the path to healing.
Meet Our Team
Erica Smuckler
Licensed Clinical Social Worker
Owner & Clinical Director
Specializing In
TraumaDepressionAnxiety
