Child Therapy
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Therapy for Kids
Changes in your child’s personality can be worrying for parents, especially when kids don’t have the tools to tell you what’s happening. Understanding the best way to address your child’s emotional changes can be challenging. Maybe they come home angrily, slamming doors and withdrawing from friends and family. Or perhaps they lash out at siblings or resort to violence when angry.
You might feel overwhelmed and wonder whether something deeper is going on, especially when your advice to breathe and count to 10 is insufficient. In these situations, you might consider seeking children’s therapy services. Professionals can get your child to open up, identify the root of the problem and help them develop healthy coping mechanisms to feel better, whether they’re dealing with anger, anxiety, depression or something else.
Learn how kids counseling can help your child gain a better sense of well-being.
What’s Going on With Your Child?
It can be tricky to identify emotional problems with your child and even more difficult for kids to understand the source of their frustrations. Therapy services for children can address mental health issues with compassion and open-mindedness. Professionals can meet your child where they are in their present struggles, giving them a comfortable space to discuss their feelings.
Your child has been hurting alone for so long and doesn’t fully understand what’s happening. They are well within themselves, shutting out much of the world to try to gain some comfort. They can’t put their finger on the hurt like they could if they needed a band-aid. This makes them so frustrated — and even more frustrated that they cannot express their pain to their parents. They may be used to getting a hug and feeling better after that. But when nothing can soothe the pain, it may be time to consider child therapy.
Book a Complimentary Call with a Licensed Child Therapist
Courageous Kids Counseling is a specialized child therapy practice focusing on helping children struggling with anxiety, depression, and trauma among other difficulties. We used CBT, DBT, play therapy, behavioral therapy, biofeedback, EMDR, and other solution-focused approaches.
When your child is struggling, you need a specialist that can help. We are happy to answer any questions you may have as you navigate this process with your child.
Signs Your Child May Need Kids Therapy
Without the vocabulary, self-reflection and insight that we have as adults, it’s difficult for children to tell us what’s going on inside. So, they may seem one way on the surface, but there are many underlying reasons for their feelings and actions.
A few signs your child may need kids therapy include:
- Defiant behaviors: Kids rarely talk directly about their challenges. Instead, they act them out by crying, shouting or being defensive, even over the smallest requests or conversation. Believe it or not, they are sharing how they feel. When children are upset, they may appear more defiant. They lash out in school, appear stressed or seem unhappy. An anger outburst might mean, “I’m sad because I want to be heard.” Doing things we don’t expect can be how kids attempt to gain attention and closeness.
- Sudden changes in interests or habits: Similar to behavioral changes, children with sudden changes in their interests and habits can signal a need for kids counseling. They may have changes in eating, sleeping and personal interests.
- Excessive sadness and worrying: A more obvious sign something is wrong is excessive signs of anxiety and sadness in your child. These signs might appear as verbal expressions or more subtly as changes in behavior.
- Regressions: Common signs your child is regressing and needing children’s therapy include bedwetting, frequent temper tantrums, excessive fearfulness and anxiety or separation anxiety and clinginess.
- Social isolation: When your child withdraws socially, this often signifies a deeper emotional problem. For example, they may eat lunch alone at school, avoid playdates or social activities and have no desire to leave the house.
- Talking about self-harm: Most urgently, if your child expresses thoughts or feelings of self-harm, it’s essential to seek help immediately.
Causes of Childhood Depression and Anxiety
Childhood depression and anxiety can stem from several factors, like a mood disorder, but that’s not the only cause.
The following risk factors can influence a child’s chances of developing mental health issues:
- Physical health: Chronic physical issues can increase the risk of depression and anxiety symptoms in kids.
- Environment: A chaotic home life can put a child at greater risk for a mood disorder like anxiety or depression. Children are also experiencing situations like peer pressure, bullying and rejection at school for the first time. It can be challenging for a child to handle and understand the reasons for rejection or disappointment.
- Family history: Children with family members who have mood disorders may be more likely to develop depression in childhood.
- Biochemical imbalances: Neurotransmitter levels can influence the risk for depression or anxiety symptoms. Serotonin affects mood, while dopamine impacts motivation, so an imbalance of those or other chemicals can cause mood disorders or symptoms.
- Stressful events: Sudden changes at home, school or in friend groups can increase a child’s risk for depressive symptoms.
Sometimes, you may think your child could have witnessed or experienced something at home when, in reality, it happened elsewhere or gradually, without you realizing something was the matter. You think you should have the answers to fix the problem, and when you don’t, it can feel like you’ve failed at parenting.
This is further from the truth. Sometimes, several issues are at play affecting your child’s happiness. In these cases, you’ll need specialized children’s therapy services to get to the root of the problem to help your child thrive.
How Child Therapy Services Can Help
It can be difficult for kids to open up initially, but that’s OK. At Courageous Kids Counseling, we understand the importance of patience, building a trusting relationship and allowing your child to speak when they feel comfortable doing so. Throughout child therapy services, we reassure your child that they are in good hands. While talking to a “stranger,” reassuring them that they are in a safe place is essential so kids feel comfortable.
We might try a few methods to help your child open up and work through their issues:
- Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT): CBT focuses on how thoughts and emotions affect behavior. These sessions involve agreed-upon goals to replace negative thought patterns with healthy, productive ones. Through role-playing and other methods, your child can learn new ways to handle stressful situations.
- Dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT): DBT works by combining mindfulness and CBT. This way, your child can learn how to understand and accept difficult emotions. DBT is often used to address borderline personality disorder, though it can help with other mental health concerns.
- Biofeedback: Through biofeedback kids counseling, children are taught ways to relax the body and control otherwise uncontrollable body functions. This therapy can help them with the physical symptoms of anxiety and depression, such as body tension, restlessness, rapid heartbeat and nausea.
- Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR): EMDR can treat children with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, dissociation, self-regulation and attachment issues.
- Play therapy: Sometimes, the best way to get to the root of the problem is to tell stories and ask if the situations match their experience. If kids tell us that we’re off, we can ask for a hint to get them to open up more. Character development, imaginative or pretend play, storytelling or drawing are great ways to give your child distance from their feelings and helps them share in a positive way.
Benefits of Therapy for Kids
Kids counseling can have immense benefits for your child, including:
- Earn praise and support: Professionals will monitor your child’s progress and encourage them to meet goals and find their strengths. At Courageous Kids Counseling, we provide recognition every step of the way as your child learns to overcome challenges and solve problems.
- Learn communication skills: Your child will learn how to communicate better. Right now, they may not have the vocabulary or the understanding of what’s going on, but, as suggested, children are like sponges, eager to learn and soak up new information. Teaching them the right words and explaining how their thoughts and feelings affect their behavior can be encouraging.
- Process emotions: Therapy services for children help them understand and process their emotions so they can perform better. We will work together to unpack big feelings and use tools to face these pitfalls. Specifically, we can help them manage sadness, anger, stress, worry, low self-esteem and grief.
- Develop healthy coping skills: Your child will discover how to manage strong feelings and gain perspective for future situations when attending children’s therapy. We’ll help your child practice what they learn. We might play games or teach them to wait their turn, practice self-control, follow directions, be patient and listen better.
- Learn from mistakes: Just like falling off a bike hurts, emotional challenges can be just as tricky. You want your child to get back up and learn from mistakes after they experience setbacks. For teenagers and older kids, therapy could involve discussing problems they have at home and at school. Therapists will then talk with your child about how to solve those issues.
- Know when to ask for help: Your child will learn to come to you, the parent, for support when obstacles are too big to handle. More importantly, they will be able to manage their feelings better.
A Client Success Example
When Sophia*, a 5-year-old girl, first came to see me, she was very quiet and hid behind her mother, letting her do all the talking. After getting a little history from her mother, I learned she did not have many friends at school and often avoided going, claiming stomach aches and other ailments. I needed to earn her trust before delving into these difficulties, which were painful for her.
During our first couple of sessions, we role-played challenges that “other” kids might face, such as worrying about who to play with on the playground and working with classmates. Indirectly, we spoke about these situations, but I did not address her recent challenges yet.
Little by little, I gained her trust and she started to answer my questions as they came up through play. Themes arose, such as fear of humiliation and stage fright. As she spoke more and more, in her own way, without realizing it, she became much more communicative.
Now she was ready for the next steps. I helped Sophia learn the language of anxiety, including fears and worries. A breakthrough happened when she was able to apply them to herself and understand how they were holding her back. After she owned her feelings, we could figure out how to manage these strong emotions and share how she felt with her parents.
We also spoke about the differences between being a leader and a follower and how she could do both in different situations. Most importantly, she learned to be a problem-solver, owned the challenges she experienced instead of running away from them, and practiced implementing the techniques she learned outside of our sessions together. This all became possible because of child therapy.
*Name changed to preserve client confidentiality.
Child Therapy FAQ
The following are a few questions we’re commonly asked about counseling for children:
1. What if My Child Doesn't Want to Talk About Their Problems?
That’s a very understandable concern. It may feel unnerving for your child to share their most personal difficulties with someone who is a stranger to them, much less going to child therapy. It will take time to establish trust and for your child to open up. But speaking with a third party who your child has no attachment to or relationship with can be helpful.
Loved ones are often partial or too involved in a situation to give unbiased advice. Our role as child counselors prevents us from having that challenge. Rather, we will create a safe, nonjudgmental space for your child to express their thoughts, concerns and fears freely.
2. My Child Is Involved in a Lot of Activities — Will They Have Enough Time for Therapy?
Involvement in activities is great for building friendships and self-confidence. But if your child is upset or anxious, it may be time to make counseling a priority. We gently encourage you to take stock of how long your child has been struggling. Perhaps you put off helping your child, thinking, “They’re going through a phase” or “They will grow out of it.”
Many children benefit from receiving support at a young age so they can have a happy and fulfilling life. Your best shot at successfully helping your child with their emotional struggles is by partnering with someone who can help identify their strengths and challenges, provide strategies and support and empower them to live their best lives.
3. What if I Don't Have the Money for Child Counseling Services?
At Courageous Kids Counseling, we are happy to provide a superbill to submit to your insurance company or refer you to a lower-cost provider. Your child’s well-being is paramount, and we will be your ally in getting them the help they need.
Book a Complimentary Call With a Child Therapist in New York at Courageous Kids Counseling
We know it’s upsetting to see your child struggling and not know what’s wrong. You’re not alone. Lots of parents feel like you do. You don’t need to have all the answers — you’re already taking the proper steps to find them. Your child has so many wonderful growing years ahead. You will get through this. Looking back, you will reminisce about all the happy memories your child had and how much they’ve grown into the person you’ve helped create.
Bumps in the road happen — but together, we can help your child discover how to become the best version of themselves! If you need a child psychologist in New York, book a complimentary call with Courageous Kids Counseling. We are a specialized children’s therapy practice focusing on helping children struggling with anxiety, depression and trauma, among other difficulties. We use CBT, EMDR, play therapy, behavioral therapy, DBT, biofeedback and other problem-solving approaches.
To book a complimentary call, we invite you to contact us for an appointment today.
Want to know where to start?
In our work together, we will uncover what is missing from your child’s life, what’s holding them back in worry and despair, and what are the ways we can help them move toward a place of happiness and fulfillment.
We provide convenient in-person and online sessions.
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