Therapy for School Aged Children and Teens
I provide individual and family therapy for elementary aged children and adolescents who are experiencing difficulties in their home, school, or social environments. The children I work with may have difficulties due to anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, or ADHD. I view therapy as an active and collaborative process. I take an eclectic approach, utilizing principles from motivational interviewing, cognitive-behavioral therapy, behavioral activation, and social learning theory. When providing therapy for children, I view parental involvement as crucial to children’s therapeutic success for several reasons.
First, parents provide important information about their children’s past and present experiences which informs the identification of specific therapy goals and helps determine targeted interventions.
Second, parental involvement is essential in order to help parents fully understand their children’s emotional experiences and behaviors.
Third, it is difficult for anyone, especially children, to generalize skills learned in the therapy room to their natural environments; including parents in the therapeutic process allows for parents to help their children generalize and practice skills to reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety.
When providing therapy for adolescents, parental involvement is often beneficial to the therapeutic success. However, in some instances it may be important to slowly build towards parental involvement so that your teen can develop a sense of agency and independence in their therapeutic work. At our first appointment we will discuss what type of parental involvement will be best at the beginning and a plan for increasing involvement if needed.