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Sometimes parents need additional support. A child or adolescent's behavior or emotional distress can become so disruptive to daily life that it's time to bring in professional help.
A child and adolescent therapist is specially trained to handle emotional changes and the difficulties that might arise across developmental stages. Child and adolescent therapists are trained in better understanding and teaching children to comprehend their emotions and to appropriately and healthily convey them. Through teaching and active listening, counselors help kids overcome obstacles in mental health.
One of the most helpful services a therapist can offer is providing the vocabulary for what a child is exhibiting. Most parents are not mental health professionals and may see behaviors that seem like “just being a kid,” when, in reality, they could be exhibiting symptoms of the development of generalized anxiety disorder or some other pervasive problem. Parenting is tough!
Meet Ellen Campbell, our child and adolescent therapist.
Helping a child to understand their emotions better, and their autonomy in how they handle their thoughts can change lives. There are different approaches for different ages and various presentations of behavior. Child therapy is typically more interactive and fun than what might be expected in traditional therapy.
Sandtray Therapy
Sandtray Therapy
Sandtray Therapy is a therapeutic intervention that makes use of a sandbox, small figures, and sometimes water, to create scenes of miniature worlds that reflect a person's inner thoughts, struggles, and concerns. It is a powerful intervention that children naturally gravitate towards because “toys are children’s words and play is their language” (Garry Landreth). Children, teens, and adults better learn to listen to and think with their bodies when they engage in sandtray therapy, It is also a safe place for life experiences to be played with, allowing the client to experiment and then transform themselves in a safe space. Sandtray therapy helps the client learn to trust themselves by first teaching them to listen to and then become more in touch with their body, their feelings, and their thoughts in ways talk therapy often cannot by accessing the unconscious.
Play Therapy
Play Therapy
Play Therapy is another useful intervention that focuses on meeting children where they are at. Fred Rogers said, “Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.” When children are given the right tools, they learn better methods of coping, creative problem solving, and begin to understand how to recognize, experience, and express emotions in healthier ways. Those tools include toys, sandtray, and creative exploration that includes music, poetry, and art.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) has been widely accepted as the intervention for treating children of all ages and can benefit kids in a variety of ways. First, the therapist seeks to help kids understand how their thoughts can influence emotions and behavior. Next, the therapist will teach kids how to be more “in tune” with their thoughts which can help with self-regulation and a variety of other areas of developmental growth.
Cognitive-Behavioral Play Therapy is typically utilized by a therapist working with a younger patient. Through play and interaction, children can be taught to recognize common errors in thinking, learn and develop more effective coping skills, and become more aware of behavior when facing adversity.
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