Many people know that ABA therapy helps children with autism develop new skills, but in reality, ABA is much more than just teaching behaviors.
ABA therapists work with children to improve communication, social skills, emotional regulation, and daily living skills, creating a personalized approach to help each child reach their full potential.
What is Child Counseling?
Child counseling is a specialized area of psychology focused on helping children with mental health issues, trauma, or difficult family situations. While it addresses issues like anxiety and grief, it breaks them down in a way children can understand.
Child counselors offer unique insight into a child’s emotional development, which may not be apparent to even those closest to them.
Why Seek Child Counseling?
When dealing with your young child’s mental and emotional health, professional guidance can uncover underlying issues.
Many children struggle to express the complexities of emotional or mental problems, making counseling an excellent option to explore causes. Children with conditions like OCD, PTSD, or anxiety may benefit from counseling as part of a diagnosis or treatment plan.
Child counseling unites parental concerns with a therapist’s expertise, helping children through difficult times. While parents want the best for their children, some situations may be too challenging to handle alone. Counseling provides professional support and strategies focused on the child’s well-being.
Signs Your Child May Need Counseling
A child who displays developmental problems or acts out in ways that are beyond what’s considered normal can likely benefit from counseling, especially if there has been a recent trauma or significant event that impacts their lives, like a death or divorce. Some of the signs that your child is in distress and could need counseling include:
Issues Addressed By
Child Counseling
If your child has experienced tragic or unsettling events in his or her life, such as the unexpected loss of a loved one or an abusive episode, the stress of the situation may be difficult for them to understand. Some of the most common issues that child counseling addresses are:
Divorce
Death of a loved one and grief
Witnessing or experiencing a trauma
Mental health diagnoses, including anxiety and depression
Bullying
Relocating schools or cities
Sexual, emotional, or physical abuse
Substance abuse or addiction in the family
Goals Of Child Counseling
Child counseling addresses major issues in a child’s life with the intended outcome being that they can learn tools to deal with stress or trauma. Some of the common goals of child counseling include being able to cope with difficult situations such as:
Anxiety
Children who attend counseling are encouraged to learn techniques to deal with emotional distress and anxiety on their own. Children can learn to prevent panic attacks or cope with anxiety in a variety of ways, which they will learn in their counseling sessions.
Some strategies they will learn may include breathing exercises, changing negative self-talk, muscle relaxation, talking to a trusted adult about their feelings instead of keeping them inside, and asserting themselves by knowing when to remove themselves from a stressful situation. Teaching these techniques to children gives them a toolbox of coping mechanisms that they can use when they become anxious or experience a panic attack.
Trauma
Children who attend counseling are encouraged to learn techniques to deal with emotional distress and anxiety on their own. Children can learn to prevent panic attacks or cope with anxiety in a variety of ways, which they will learn in their counseling sessions.
Some strategies they will learn may include breathing exercises, changing negative self-talk, muscle relaxation, talking to a trusted adult about their feelings instead of keeping them inside, and asserting themselves by knowing when to remove themselves from a stressful situation. Teaching these techniques to children gives them a toolbox of coping mechanisms that they can use when they become anxious or experience a panic attack.
Divorce
When a marriage dissolves, it can be very challenging for children in the family to cope with. Many children blame themselves for their parents splitting up or have feelings that they are unloved. With divorce often comes changes in custody, and in some cases, there are tense custody battles between parents.
Children can feel guilty about choosing which parent they want to live with and feel distress if their choices or feelings don’t align with their siblings.
Child counseling teaches children to deal with feelings of sadness, fear, and guilt by giving them techniques to use such as deep breathing, journaling or art therapy, practicing positive self-talk, and talking about their feelings with their parents or another trusted adult.
Grief
A death of a loved one, whether it’s a family member, peer, or friend of the family is distressing for anyone; however, children often cannot cope with death in the same way that adults can. For children, it may be difficult to understand their feelings of loss, despair, sadness, and missing the person who died.
Often, children may have irrational thoughts such as the fear that they will also die, thinking that the death was their fault, or believing that they could have prevented it.
Child counseling helps children understand the grieving process and teaches them that it’s okay to experience the emotions that arise after losing a loved one. Coping strategies may include being able to talk about their feelings, channeling grief through creative pursuits like journaling or art, and allowing themselves to speak or think about their loved one through sharing personal memories.Teaching children the stages of grief is another technique that helps them understand that how they feel is normal and natural.
Significant Change
For many children, events, like moving to a new city or changing schools, can be stressful.
Many adults can accept these changes as part of life, so you may not realize the impact it has on your child.
Children who have difficulty dealing with change can experience feelings of insecurity, anxiety or worry, or anger towards their parents. While these are normal reactions to significant change, many children have a hard time moving past these feelings on their own.
Child counseling teaches children to cope with change through learning to focus on the positive and stable aspects of their life, positive self-talk, deep breathing exercises when anxiety arises, and understanding that change is natural, understanding that their feelings are temporary and will fade when they adjust to the situation.
Self-Esteem and Confidence
Many children struggle with poor self-esteem and low confidence which can lead to depression, substance abuse, eating disorders, or thoughts of self-harm.
When a child has poor self-esteem, they may feel unloved, worthless, and their friends and family would be better off without them.
Child counseling can help children improve their self-esteem in a variety of ways, including digging deeper into underlying issues that may have caused these beliefs, recognizing negative self-talk and turning it into positive thoughts, using affirmations to gain confidence and self-acceptance, and talking to a trusted adult when troubling feelings arise.
If a child’s low self-esteem has developed into something more serious, like an eating disorder, child counselors are equipped to help children overcome those issues.
We accept all major insurances
We collaborate with a wide range of major insurance providers, granting you access to top-tier therapy services.
Billings
1701 Ave E Suite A Billings, MT 59102
Butte
2100 Harrison Ave Suite C Butte, MT 59701
Missoula
