Our Services
Therapy for Children
It can be difficult to know how to respond when your child is having a hard time or acting out because they do not have the language to meaningfully express themselves.
Our approach utilizes a combination of parenting support and play to strengthen the relationship between you and your child, which will help them to heal and grow.
Typical challenges may include: tantrums and meltdowns, dawdling (a.k.a. taking forever to do things), not listening or not following the rules, defiance or opposition (a.k.a. talking back or doing opposite of what you want), and verbal or physical aggression (a.k.a. getting into arguments or fights).
Other challenges may include: lying, destructive or careless (breaking everything they get their hands on), attention seeking, difficulty paying attention or easily distracted, nightmares, and afraid of new places or people.
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Young children often show what is happening on the inside through their behaviors on the outside. One of the most important things child therapy supports is helping you to truly see and understand your child because having a consistent and predictable relationship with you, will help them to feel safe and secure following with you.
WE/RHT will work with you and your child to decrease all the problematic behaviors listed above, while increasing all of the stuff that you actually want to see, such as - doing things in a timely manner, listening to you, following your rules, using nice words and gentle hands, being able to entertain themselves, and staying focused!
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Be prepared to get involved and have fun! When working with young children, we find it is best for the parent to be included and participating in each session – whether it is for the entire session to support the parent-child relationship OR for only a brief moment to help them manage their separation anxiety and build independence. During the session, the therapist will ask you to play with your child while providing direct, real-time coaching to help you learn the skills to manage their behaviors.
Many parents get a little nervous when they think about a therapist watching them play with their kid because they don’t want to make mistakes or have their child become disruptive in the session. No worries! This is where the magic happens! Play is the language of children and any mishaps mean we are learning something during the session! And we look forward to being able to support you in real-time when your child acts up. In fact, after therapy is over, parents often tell us that the best part of the therapy experience was getting support through one of their child’s tantrums!
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Lots of FUN! We will let them know they are in therapy, what that means, and why they are there - but after that they will probably forget they are in therapy (or they will start telling everyone how much they love therapy).
