Children's Counselling And Psychotherapy
As a parent or caregiver, it can be difficult to decide exactly when it’s time to reach out for help for your child. When you have concerns about their mental and emotional wellbeing, or their learning and behaviour, well-meaning family members or friends may try to reassure you by saying something like, “it’s just a ‘phase, they’ll grow out of it”, or “don’t worry they’ll be fine - children are resilient”.
The reality is that the vast majority of us could use somebody to talk to at some point in our lives, including children, and we believe that as a parent, you know your child more than anyone - you are their biggest advocate. Whether your child’s problems or concerns seem ‘minor’, or temporary, or if they’ve been ongoing for some time, counselling and psychotherapy with an experienced psychologist can help make a really difficult time in life easier and less painful to deal with - for both children and their parents.
What Are Some Signs My Child Should See A Psychologist?
We are eager to offer you support no matter your concern. Some general red flags that suggest your child may benefit from seeing a psychologist can include:
- Showing significant mood or behavioural changes. For example, if your child has dropped out of extracurricular activities and is spending a lot of their free time alone in their room.
- Struggling with a stressful situation in their life, such as a health concern, moving to a new city of school, bullying, divorce, or having a prolonged adjustment period to a new sibling.
- Having trouble with staying on-task in class or struggling to ‘keep up’ academically.
- Experiencing issues that are growing bigger as they grow up, rather than getting better.
- Displaying long periods of tantrums or becoming destructive or hitting others when angry.
- Displaying changes after a trauma such as a death, accident, natural disaster, or abuse.
- Struggling with more anxiety or fearfulness than other children their age and it’s beginning to interfere with elements like school, friendships, meals, and bedtime.
- Displaying a lot of ‘clingy’ behaviour or separation anxiety.
- Having difficulty making and maintaining friendships.
- Displaying regression behaviours, such as wetting the bed even though they are night trained.
- Displaying signs that they may have or have already been diagnosed with a mental health condition such as depression, anxiety, ADHD or autism, or a learning disability such as dyslexia, dysgraphia, or if they are neurodiverse or have slower learning processes.
How A Psychologist Can Help Your Child And Your Family
Psychologists can give your child emotional support, a listening ear, and support them to manage their ‘big feelings’. They can help children to learn coping skills to manage different challenges, address behavioural concerns, and help families to communicate and get along better, using a personalised treatment plan built upon a wide range of therapies that are best suited to your child. In particular, our psychologists are highly experienced in using targeted Play Therapy and Attachment Based Family Therapy to support children at their level, and improve family relationships and overall emotional wellbeing.
Psychological Assessments
We can conduct a range of assessments to help to diagnose mental health and learning concerns such as ADHD, autism, dyslexia, and learning disabilities, assess intelligence, and identify strengths. This information can then be used to create a personalised treatment plan to best set up your child for success at school with recommendations for their teachers and practical classroom tools, at home, with friendships, and beyond.
We are dedicated to setting your child up with a strong foundation to support them in their teen years and into adulthood. To make an appointment with one of our qualified psychologists today, contact us here.
A to Z Psychology
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