Do You Wish You Could Help Your Child Feel Happy Again?

Does your child’s behavior have you at your wits end?
Do you regularly receive calls or reports from your child’s school about inappropriate behavior?
Are you worried about your child’s well-being following a trauma?
Do you wish you knew what was troubling your child so you could make it go away?

mother and son It can be physically and emotionally exhausting when you feel powerless to help your child overcome his or her challenges. You may notice that your child has stopped behaving in ways they should or started behaving in ways they shouldn’t. Anxiety, anger and depression can lead to fighting at school, tantrums and acting out in other aggressive or isolating ways. You may begin to wonder if your child is being bullied online, verbally or physically. Perhaps your child acts up when leaving a parent or when he or she will be kept away from a parent for an extended time, like before school or when told to get ready for bed. You may have to miss a family or work event because you are focused on helping your child avoid a meltdown, tantrum or anxiety attack.

Alternately, your child or family may have experienced a trauma, loss or significant life transition and despite not seeing symptoms, you want to make sure your child is handling everything in a healthy manner. And, if you are seeing symptoms, you may desperately want to better understand your child’s experience and feel powerless to help your child feel healthy and happy again.

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Many Children Struggle with Difficult and Complex Issues

Transitions and loss can be difficult on a child, and many parents fear their child will face a challenge they cannot help with. You want to be the best parent you can be, but it can be difficult to understand your child’s struggles. Youth is a series of ongoing developmental stages full of transitions, and it is typical for children to handle transitions differently than adults do. They do not have the same language skills or ability to express themselves, so behavior becomes their language. Alternately your child’s behavior may be caused by issues like Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or an undiagnosed learning disability.

The truth is children, like adults, go through a variety of obstacles as a result of their personalities and experiences. Challenges and disagreements can occur in relationships at school, at church and even at home. If you have multiple children, it can be easy to think that they will all go through things in the same way. But, all children go through developmental stages differently, and one may become stuck where others do not. The good news is this doesn’t mean your child will continue to have trouble his or her whole life.

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Family and Child Counseling Can Provide Both You and Your Child With Powerful Tools

In Alkira child counseling, we work with your child as well as their support system, as resilience in a child comes from how they are supported. Your role as a parent is seminal in fostering that resilience, and we work with you to tailor our approach to meet your and your child’s specific needs. In order to help your child, we’ll meet with you to share and discuss and possibly suggest changes to your routine. In some cases we may even be able to make a helpful recommendation in the first session.

Children enter a very rigid childcare or school system at an extremely young age. These systems are not geared toward helping each child as they are, they are mostly a one size fits all. Children who act out, have trouble or are anxious are telling us that there is an issue they need help navigating. With children age three to nine year olds we use a non-directive therapy approach. Young children often use behavior to communicate when their language skills do not allow them to express their feelings. We create a safe environment where your child gets to choose what activity to do in our dedicated play space. By using these activities therapeutically, we can communicate with and better understand your child through the behavioral and verbal language he or she is using. We then intervene in their play, giving them new experiences with problems they are facing and feeling.

With older children, we implement a more directive approach. We tailor creative, sometimes artistic, activities in addition to traditional talk therapy for your child to express what is going on in his or her school or family lives in a non-obtrusive way. Depending on your child’s age, his or her therapist may offer advice on how to approach a particular situation or challenge, such as how to stop hitting his brother.

In our first session, we will work with you to understand what is happening with your child and to identify the right treatment approach for your situation. We have behavioral, ADHD and anxiety experts so we can make sure you and your child are working with the right therapist. This first meeting is parents only, allowing you to speak openly and without fear of saying something upsetting in front of your child.

We are here for both you and your child throughout the entire child counseling process. You have an ally who is concerned about and can help your child grow. You don’t have to carry the weight on your own. With your support and that of an experienced child and family therapist, your child can overcome his or her difficulties, develop life-long skills and go on to lead a happy, healthy life.

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But, you may still have questions about child counseling…

I’ve heard that child counseling can take a long time and is expensive.

While it is true that some children benefit from extended counseling, we understand that every child – and his or her challenges – is unique. In some cases we can offer a suggestion or recommendation in the first session. But it is important to remember that our focus is on your child’s well-being, and lasting change can take time. If you are concerned about the cost of child counseling, we offer a reduced rate for clients with poor or no insurance.

I have multiple children in various activities. Do you have flexible scheduling?

We know that your schedule can limit your options, which is why we offer appointments after school and Saturdays. We do our best to accommodate parents with busy schedules or multiple commitments.

How is ‘play therapy’ really going to help my child’s behavior issues?

We understand that your situation and concerns are unique. In many cases the non-directive relationship in child counseling is unlike anything else your child has experienced with an adult. We give your child control of the room and let him or her know it is okay to reach out to someone. In our first session with you, we are happy to explain how and what we do in play therapy to help children achieve their goals.