Child Counseling
Guiding Your Child Through Life’s Challenges: Expert Child Counseling Tailored to Their Needs
You love your child more than anything and you’d do anything to help them. Lately you are noticing an increase in concerning behaviors. Maybe you’ve noticed that they seem to worry about things that were previously not a problem. Perhaps they have gone through some recent life transitions and they are having difficulty regulating their emotions. Or maybe you’ve started getting phone calls and emails from school. You aren’t sure where to turn but you know that something is “off” with your child. It may be affecting their behavior, their emotions, and even their eating and sleeping habits. You know you need some help getting things back on track and a better understanding of what your child is going through.
Children are unable to communicate in the same way as adults. Therefore you need a therapist who is specifically trained in child therapy. As child therapists, we are trained to help children process their emotions in a way that makes sense to them and leads to lasting change.
Specialized Child Counseling for children ages 3-14 Call (832) 521-8809 today!
Why Play Therapy?
Play therapy is specialized counseling uniquely and specifically suited for children between the ages of 3-14. We start with the understanding that children have not yet developed the cognitive skills for abstract reasoning. This means they don’t yet understand concepts like cause and effect, the consequences of their behavior, and they exclusively operate out of their emotions, not the reasoning part of their brain. That part of their brain hasn’t developed yet. Since children do not have abstract reasoning and they operate out of their emotions, traditional talk therapy doesn’t work. Most adults’ concept of therapy is sitting on a couch and talking through issues but this does not work with children. Children work through issues by playing issues out, not talking them out.
Play therapy involves the use of play to communicate with children and to help children learn to solve problems and change their problematic behaviors. Children naturally engage in play to create meaning and organize their experiences. This allows children to distance themselves from difficult feelings and experiences through symbolic expression, using the toys as the medium to disclose these feelings. The therapeutic playroom becomes a sacred place to process and explore painful fears, anxieties and inadequacies. In play therapy I will support your child while they work through their emotions, equipping them with improved self-esteem, a greater sense of self, self-regulation and a decrease in problematic behaviors.
Relevant Blog Posts
Creating Confident Children and How Play Therapy Helps
Have you ever noticed how hard your child tries to build the tallest tower, win the board game, or draw the “perfect” picture? Underneath all that effort is something very important: your child is working hard to feel competent. In other words, to feel capable,...
How Child-Centered Play Therapy Helps Children with Social Anxiety Thrive
How Child-Centered Play Therapy Helps Children with Social Anxiety Thrive Social anxiety in children can be heartbreaking to witness. You may see your child clinging to you in public, avoiding eye contact, refusing to speak in class, or withdrawing from social...
Why Does Play Therapy Take Longer With Children with ADHD?
Children with ADHD often take longer in child-centered play therapy because of their unique challenges with self-regulation, attention, and impulse control. Several key factors contribute to the extended timeline: Delayed Self-Regulation Development – ADHD affects the...
Why Child Centered Play Therapy is the Best Mental Health Intervention for Children
In the realm of child mental health interventions, numerous therapeutic approaches exist, but none are as effective, developmentally appropriate, and empowering as Child-Centered Play Therapy (CCPT). Rooted in the understanding that play is a child’s natural language,...
How Long Does Play Therapy Take?
One of the most common questions we are asked is, "how long does play therapy take to see a change in my child?" If you are reaching out for help you are anxious for things to get better. You can feel confident that play therapy is an evidenced-based approach that...
Universal Outcomes of Play Therapy
When you bring your child to play therapy, you may wonder what to expect. In fact, you may be wondering how play therapy will help your child. These are all normal questions. In fact, one of the most commonly asked questions I hear from parents is “what do I get if I...