Therapy with Children and Adolescents
Specialties
Traumatic experiences
Grief or loss
Family Stressors, Conflicts, and Difficult Transitions
Anxiety, Depression, or other Mood Problems
Suicidality, Self-Injury, or other Self-Harming behaviors
Relationship problems with peers or family
Oppositional or Defiant behaviors
Managing symptoms related to ADHD, Autism, or Intellectual or other developmental disorders
Therapy with Adolescents
Photo by Sydney Sims on Unsplash
Therapy with Adolescents brings particular challenges as they are in a unique stage of development between childhood and adulthood.
They are often trying to navigate between conflicting demands of:
Autonomy vs. Dependence
Identity Development vs. Social Inclusion
Social Demands vs. Family Demands
Tradition vs. Finding Their Own Path
Photo by Victoria Heath on Unsplash
Adolescence is also a time that can involve the challenges of:
Intense emotions and urges due to hormone and brain development
Impulsivity or a limited ability to plan and organize due to brain development
Navigating new relationship experiences and demands
Significant decision-making related to career path and future plans
We believe it is important to understand those unique challenges in order to help both adolescents and their parents feel comfortable and be successful in treatment. Our goal with adolescents is to help them find a way to “Walk the Middle Path,” making progress toward their goals while learning how to navigate and balance these concerns.
Play Therapy
Play therapy techniques can be a powerful tool in therapy work with children. Play is the language of children growing up; it is how they express their feelings and selves, interact with others, and explore and make sense of the world. This is especially true when their verbal skills are not developed enough to understand or express these ideas in conversation.
Play therapy techniques are not just playing games or keeping a child distracted so that they will engage in talk therapy. Rather, play therapy techniques can be used:
For Assessment Purposes. We can observe child responses during play to assess prominent emotions that they experience; how they view themselves, relationships, and the world; thoughts or ideas that are distressing or stuck in their head; and patterns of coping or responding to stressful situations.
To process emotional reactions and experiences.
To learn new ways of responding to others.
To learn new ways of coping.
To strengthen a more positive or healthy view of their self.
We believe that family involvement is crucial to providing effective treatment to children and adolescents. Caregivers or other family members have important knowledge about how problems developed and how the child or adolescent is currently functioning. The problems identified for treatment are often stressful for the whole family, and conversely, family stressors impact a child or adolescent’s functioning. Family involvement can help family members understand each other or the problems they are struggling with, and it can help them develop strategies for providing support or responding more effectively to each other.
Family involvement is tailored to the individual needs of the client and family. At the start of treatment, we will discuss what type of involvement makes sense and the frequency of these services; we will regularly review and revise this plan as needed. This can involve:
Joint meetings of the child/adolescent with other family members
Individual meetings with caregivers or other family members
Caregiver coaching in between therapy sessions to help them manage conflicts or problems that come up
Providing education about developmental expectations, diagnoses, or symptoms
Helping caregivers or other family members learn strategies to support child or adolescent’s efforts to manage symptoms or problems
Increasing understanding of relationship patterns in the family
Helping child/adolescent and family members develop skills or strategies for communication or conflict management
Play Therapy
Collaboration with Schools
School is a very big part of a child or adolescent’s life; a child may spend 30% of their awake hours at school each week and it is a big part of their focus or attention in life. It is often a setting in which problems can be triggered or play out, or symptoms can interfere with a child’s functioning at school. Working together with a child’s school can help that child be more successful. Collaboration can include:
Figuring out together how problems present or are triggered in the school setting
Helping school personnel understand a child or adolescent’s difficulties
Identifying effective ways to respond to problems in the school setting
Helping school personnel identify ways to support the child or family
Helping the school identify or implement possible accommodations to help the child learn or demonstrate their knowledge
The process for collaborating involves:
Having a discussion about the potential need for or benefit of collaborating with the school
Discussing which school personnel are/are not included in the collaboration and the type of information that will or will not be shared and signing consents to authorize this
Discussion of what to expect related to communication about these services