Child Therapy

As a parent, you know your child better than anyone. But…

You’re not always able to understand what’s going on in their head. Children between the ages of 5 and 12 are doing what they can to learn where they fit in the world and who they are, and these kids struggle to make sense of their emotional and social worlds.

Kids don’t always have the words, maturity, or understanding to communicate what they need from parents and adults – leaving you to do a lot of guesswork! Remember back when they were babies, and all you had to go on was the way a particular cry sounded?

Even though they have many more communication tools now, it can be like caring for an infant again in their emotional world. You guess what they need and try to give it – but you don’t honestly or instantly know what they needed to begin.

Therapy will start with a detailed family intake assessment.

I spend at least 60 minutes interviewing both parent(s) or guardian(s) and the child to learn more about the child’s history, current concerns and needs, family background and composition, academic performance, peer relationships, strengths, interests, and more.

By doing this, the child learns right off the bat that I am joining the team. We’re all working together to help him or her succeed.

A safe, positive, trusting relationship with your child…

Nothing is more important than this!

This means listening deeply and giving kids the space to share without being corrected, challenged, or questioned.

For others, it looks like sharing interests: Legos, Marvel Superheroes, Harry Potter, Minecraft, Paw Patrol, basketball, cars, Disney, drawing… the list goes on and on. I love hearing about children’s interests, likes, dislikes, and special talents!

Every kiddo is different…

So, therapy for each child can also look very different!

As we proceed, I’ll use a combination of play, art, and talk therapy to help your child progress toward the completion of his or her unique goals. I let the child’s interests, strengths, and preferences lead when deciding how to engage them in each session.

Many of the children I have worked with love drawing and coloring. A child will have paper, pens, crayons, markers, dry-erase supplies, or whatever they like best to create images in a teletherapy format.

If we’re working on a goal like communicating feelings to adults instead of acting out, we’ll probably draw many feelings together. Feelings faces, situations in which feelings happen, or many colors/lines/shapes/symbols that show how they experience different emotions. Taking this idea and experiencing it in a visual world helps children master and tangibly control emotions.

A lot of my favorite kiddos are wonderful talkers and thinkers…

… with big ideas and lots to share! If you have a kid who could “talk someone’s ear off,” then I am ALL EARS!

I’ll guide the way with questions that help them make sense of their stories and experiences. I’ll listen without judgment or criticism. And I will provide feedback. With me, you know your child is getting guidance from a trusted, responsible, educated, experienced adult you can trust.

Play is the work of children. Through play, children learn about their world and experiences, and they grow. Kids can learn social and communication skills by playing a game. Games will help them gain experience with taking turns, accepting when things don’t quite go their way, and making choices within a structure and set of rules. Playing games with a therapist differs from family game night. In therapy, I will help them understand the frustration and learn ways to cope with it besides quitting.

Imagination and pretend play can also help a child work through various problems and goals. Children who have experienced trauma or stress but can’t talk about it directly may express their experience, feelings, and emotions more readily when engaging in pretend play with toys or telling stories. Themes like fear, safety, relationships, loss, and other issues can powerfully emerge in play.

I am trained to recognize the underlying messages in a child’s play and help them process through these problems in a safe and supportive way.

Therapy will help your child identify and express their emotions effectively.

No matter the child or situation, this is the one thing to which we’ll always give attention.

Often, children have to differentiate whether they’re feeling sad, mad, happy, etc. They’ll then learn alternative ways to describe those emotions.

Have you ever heard the words “disappointed,” “furious,” “confused,” or “Anxious”? Let’s learn some new ways to talk about feelings and communicate them in healthy, safe ways.

Sorting out emotions allows the child to understand what’s happening in his mind. Next, he can learn how situations and feelings can lead to different behaviors and consequences.

This knowledge empowers him to make choices, manage emotions, communicate them to others, and ACT with self-control instead of REACT with impulsivity.