About Child & Family Therapy Services
"It shouldn’t matter how slowly a child learns. What matters is that we encourage them to never stop trying."
~ Robert John Meehan
The Child Therapy Service is an innovative Wellbeing Hub of emotional health services for families, professionals, and schools. We specialize in supporting children and young people overcome anxiety and self-limited beliefs.
A child psychologist is a mental health professional who uses psychological evaluations and various forms of therapy to help children and adolescents learn to better cope with life and relationship issues and mental health conditions. They can help treat mental, emotional, social and behavioral health conditions.
Child psychologists have a thorough understanding of the basic psychological needs of children and adolescents and how their family and other social contexts influence their:
- Social and emotional adjustment.
- Developmental processes.
- Behavioral adaptation.
What do child psychologists do?
Child psychologists use a wide range of procedures and skills when working with children and adolescents, including:
- Assessing psychological, intellectual, cognitive and behavioral issues with testing and evaluation.
- Using interventions such as psychotherapy (talk therapy) and behavior management.
- Developing prevention programs, such as preventing bullying, addictions, teen pregnancy, etc.
- Consulting with other professionals and healthcare providers who work with children.
The emotional, mental and behavioral conditions that affect children are often treated differently from adults due to differences in age, cognitive levels and maturity. Because of this, child psychologists can use several different types of therapy techniques based on your child’s age and unique situation. Depending on the age and needs of your child, child psychologists may work solely with you (or guardians) to help with parenting skills or how to best address your child’s behaviors.
These therapies include:
- Art therapy.
- Behavioral therapy.
- Child-centered play therapy.
- Child-parent relationship therapy.
- Child anger management therapy.
- Child trauma therapy.
- Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).
- Dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT).
- Emotionally focused therapy.
- Group or family therapy.
- Music therapy.
- Occupational therapy.
- Parent-child interaction therapy.
Your child may benefit from seeing a therapist if:
- They need emotional support and someone to talk to about their feelings.
- They’re struggling with anxiety, depression, anger or big life changes.
- You’d like help figuring out how to get along better with your child and improve difficult behavior.
- You’d like your child to meet with someone regularly, and you’re not looking for help with medication or more complex mental health conditions.
A child psychologist can conduct many tests that therapists can’t, which can be helpful when you need more information about the source of your child’s difficulties or if your child needs an IEP.
