Does your child have trouble dealing with their emotions? Is their behavior sometimes disruptive to your home life? Have they experienced sudden loss or trauma?
As they grow, children and adolescents develop social skills and emotional intelligence. This awareness helps them to develop into healthy, happy, and successful individuals. But some children have trouble processing feelings related to difficult life experiences and/or relationships in their lives. This often leads to behavior that negatively impacts their school life, home life and overall well-being.
Effective Forms of Therapy for Children and Adolescents
Therapy offers children and adolescents a safe space to work through their thoughts and emotions. With the help of a specialized therapist, children can resolve problems, modify behaviors, and make positive and lasting changes.
Family Matters of Marin offers different types of psychotherapy available to children and families. Each offers unique approaches and techniques to bring about positive outcomes. Sometimes a therapist may choose to use just one specific treatment, and other times he or she may find a combination of various treatments is the best approach. Working with children and adolescents we often include parent and family sessions as part of treatment. Family therapy is great for helping families improve communication so they can resolve issues. Sessions can include the entire family, including children, siblings, parents and grandparents, or just one or two individuals. Please see our list of specialties for possible approaches our therapists might use to treat your family.
Who is Therapy Right for?
At every age, children can be faced with life’s challenges. The following are just some of the events and scenarios that can impact a child’s mental health and well-being:
- The death of a loved one
- Bullying
- Physical or sexual abuse
- Domestic violence
- Moving or attending a new school
- Divorce
- Anxiety
- Depression
- ADHD
- Eating disorders
- Trauma
- Attachment ruptures
- Learning disorders
Therapy is not a quick fix to a child’s behavioral or emotional issues. It is instead a thoughtful and comprehensive process that provides children with insights and skills so that they may become masters of their thoughts and feelings. This, in essence, is how children develop into happy, healthy and successful adults.
At times it is important to have individual therapy with a child. Children can struggle with mood or behavioral issues that benefit greatly from individual therapy or a combination of individual and family/parenting support. A child is part of a larger family, so we work closely with parents and other family members as well. When we work with a child, we first meet with the parents for an intake appointment, at which we ask many questions to learn as much as we can about you and your child. You will learn about the therapy process and we will determine goals for treatment together at that session. To learn more about child therapy, please visit out blog post titled “What to Expect When Your Child Comes to Therapy.”
If you would like to explore treatment options for your child, please sign up for a consultation on our website so we can explore the options with you in more detail.