Therapy for Kids
Children communicate through play. It is through play that children learn to solve problems, recover from traumatic events, regulate emotions, develop coping skills, resolve conflict, and overcome challenges and transitions. For this reason, any therapy for children at Creative Family Counseling involves a wide array of expressive therapies. Expressive therapies include many creative therapeutic interventions such as using toys, activities, games, art, drama, dance, and music just to name a few. Our practice Therapy Dogs provide animal-assisted therapy with clients. By experiencing these creative interventions with a skilled and caring therapist, children are able to express themselves in their own developmentally appropriate ways.
Common issues addressed through expressive therapies are:
- behavioral problems
- depression
- anxiety and panic
- grief
- ADHD
- mood instability
- Autism Spectrum Disorders
- issues related to a history of abuse, neglect or abandonment
Therapists at Creative Family Counseling are also trained in other child-appropriate trauma treatment modalities, such as Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). These treatment tools are utilized in a way that is developmentally appropriate for children with special attention to each client’s individual needs.
Creative Family Counseling takes a systemic and integrative approach to work with children. Oftentimes, a child’s behaviors can serve as a warning signal that the family system isn’t functioning as best as it could.
With both individual play therapy and family therapy, clients are able to develop healthier ways of interacting and connecting with one another, which meets a child’s underlying behavioral needs.
It is typical for families of young children to participate in a wide array of services at Creative Family Counseling, which is tailored to each family’s specific needs. These services can include individual therapy, family therapy, parent support, co-parenting support, and group therapy.
Families benefit from finding ways to implement healthy lifestyle choices in areas such as family connection, development of emotional regulation skills, the organization of the family’s schedule, sleep hygiene, nutritious diet habits, physical activity, outdoor time, and limits on screen time.
