Child and Adolescent Therapy

You aren’t sure what shifted, but you can feel something is off with your child.

School may have become a struggle, or tensions at home may have increased.

When you ask what’s wrong, they pull away, avoid the questions, or tell you everything is okay. Part of them may want to open up, but without the words, those feelings come out in other ways.

They show up through behavior, play, and subtle changes in how your child navigates and relates to the world.

Children and adolescents aren’t ‘mini-adults.’

Both children and adolescents struggle to identify and express feelings. Both are developing an emotional vocabulary to describe the complexity of emotions.

Children are only beginning to develop communication skills. So, they will express their inner world non-verbally (facial expressions, eye contact, gestures, etc.) more often than with words.

Adolescents may have words, but they don’t want to use them. Perhaps they don’t feel safe to say what’s on their minds.

In therapy, we meet them in that space.

Through play, creativity, and an attuned approach, your child can begin to explore the emotions that they haven’t been able to say out loud.

Over time, this helps them put words to their inner experience, giving you a clearer way to understand and support them.

Therapy involving play is excellent for children and adolescents, giving them an outlet and a safe place to express and act out their feelings.

For example, when a child is asked to draw their family on paper and talk about it, the drawing often reveals a lot about how the child sees themselves and their world. It can also reveal dynamics in family relationships that would be hard to express in words.

The benefits of therapy can be great.

Therapy helps your child develop self-confidence and improve coping skills. They can normalize feelings and what is and is not age-appropriate and improve their communication skills.

Your child or adolescent can learn ways to improve problem-solving skills, become more socially aware, and gain appropriate social skills. They can also improve their self-awareness and enhance self-control.

Sometimes, parents can become overwhelmed by striving to understand what is happening to their children. Therapy can help make growing up easier.

If your child struggles, please use the form below to schedule a free consultation to talk about how therapy may benefit your child or adolescent.