Child Therapy
When your child is struggling, it can feel overwhelming and sometimes scary. Oftentimes unexpectedly, parenting strategies that worked well for years may suddenly feel as if they’re falling short, possibly even exacerbating problems and driving a wedge in your previously harmonious relationship with your child. Sometimes, environmental pressures may increase the intensity of what would otherwise be relatively minor problems- performance anxiety at school, peer pressure from friends, disorganization, nervousness, and sadness.
By viewing your family as a system, with each member contributing a part, we work with you and your child to develop new skills and strategies aimed at improving how your system operates. We examine how children function in different settings (at home with family, at school, out with friends), which gives us a fully-informed picture of the nature and scope of your child’s difficulties.
We believe establishing a trusting bond with children and their families allows our clients to feel safe discussing and working on difficult things. We intentionally create a space for children to discuss what matters to them, and how things in their lives impact them, without making them feel judgment, shame, or guilt. Helping you and your child develop new ways to communicate what’s going on, day-to-day, often improves cooperation, effective problem-solving, and increased understanding between all family members.
Many school-aged children struggle with Attention-Deficit Disorder, Anxiety Disorders, and Oppositional Defiant Disorder. Other children may experience the distressing effects of depression, grief, or trauma. These conditions often alter the way children think, feel, respond, and interact with their world. For parents of these children, it is not uncommon to see your child presenting with academic difficulties, isolation from others, and “acting out”. These behaviors are often signs that children need and want help, whether or not they are able to articulate what’s going on and why.
Grounding much of our treatment in Cognitive Behavior Therapy, our child therapy clinicians help children understand the connections between their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. This process allows children to begin to recognize dysfunctional patterns, and to replace bad habits with better ones. We also utilize Solution-Focused therapy, which helps children learn and implement actionable steps to improve their responses to stress, develop functional problem-solving skills, and nurtures resilience.
By collaborating with children and their families, we develop an individualized child therapy treatment plan for your child, aimed at improving their symptoms and increasing their overall well-being. We create meaningful goals and track progress as we go, using child therapy sessions to help you and your child develop tools, skills, and strategies to work towards and achieve those goals. We also partner with schools, tutors, coaches, and any other adults in your child’s life, to create a reliable sense of consistency across caregivers.
Our unique blend of evidence-based strategies and wellness-oriented methods allows our child therapy clinicians to help your child restore their sense of self-esteem, control, and self-determination. Many children leave our care with renewed motivation to tackle challenges and succeed, secure in their newfound confidence and abilities. We celebrate these successes, and encourage children to prioritize their mental health as they continue their journey of growth and self-discovery. For mor information on our Child Therapy Services in Ponte Vedra, please contact us today.