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Life is a journey and at times we need a pit stop to regroup, rebuild and replenish. Counseling provides an opportunity to catch your breath and develop the tools needed to move forward leaving a difficult past behind. Even when the past is painful, counseling can help clients to see beyond the pain and provide a path to healing. 

While the brain is still developing, mental health care can be a challenge. The therapies and treatments that work for adults might not fully address the same issues in a child. The treatment concepts might be confusing to a young mind. Child and adolescent care focuses on using methods that help kids and teens to develop skills to manage their illnesses in a way that they can understand and can build upon as they get older.

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, 1 in 5 teens and young adults live with a mental health condition—half develop the condition by age 14 and three quarters by age 24. The Child Mind Institute’s 2017 Children’s Mental Health Report notes that half of teens diagnosed with major mood disorders don’t adhere to treatment, but studies show 81% of teens with anxiety, 71% of teens with depression, and 85% of teens with ADHD get better with treatment.

Family involvement is a key component to child and adolescent care. Parents and guardians are often taught the same skills their kids are learning so that they can help the child to practice the skills outside of treatment and use the skills to manage challenging thoughts and behaviors. Parent education is also important, so that parents fully understand the mental health conditions and the steps clinicians are suggesting to best help their child.

Signs You Should Consider Counseling For Your Child:

• Your child has undergone significant changes in their behavior
• Your child has shown significant changes in their appearance
• Your child is having problems relating to their peers
• Your child seems distant
• Your child often complains of unexplained head or stomach aches
• Your child has undergone a significant change in their personality
• You find your child to be irritable, depressed, or anxious
• Your child asks to go to counseling
• You’ve run out of answers
• Your child has been though a traumatic event such as death, assault, or sexual assault
• Your child has been bullied
• Your child is involved in a pregnancy – they are pregnant or they have gotten someone pregnant
• Your child is struggling with their status as an LGBTQ teen

How adolescent and teen counseling can help your child:

• Overcome depression and anxiety
• Learn valuable life coping techniques
• Build better peer relationships
• View their body in a more positive light – Body image issues
• Overcome eating disorders
• Improve self esteem
• Improve in school
• Have a better relationship with you and/or your spouse
• Get over being bullied

Early childhood experiences shape the architecture of the developing brain and lay the foundations of sound mental health. Disruptions to this developmental process can impair a child’s capacities for learning and relating to others with lifelong implications.  Children can show clear characteristics of anxiety disorders, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, conduct disorder, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and neuro-developmental disabilities, such as autism, at a very early age. That said, young children respond to and process emotional experiences and traumatic events in ways that are very different from adults and older children which often impacts appropriate diagnosing.

Below are some mental health conditions often addressed in therapy:

• Anxiety is chronic, excessive worry and fear that seems to have no real cause. Children or adolescents with anxiety disorders often worry a lot about a variety of things. These include future events, past behaviors, social acceptance, family matters, their personal abilities, and/or school performance. Obsessive compulsive disorder is an anxiety disorder in which people have obsessive thoughts that are unwanted and related to fears (such as a fear of touching dirty objects) and use compulsive rituals to control the fears (such as excessive hand-washing). When OCD is present, obsessive thoughts and compulsive rituals can become so frequent or intense that they interfere with activities of daily living and normal developmental activities.
• Attention deficit disorder (ADD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are behavior disorders, usually first diagnosed in childhood, that are characterized by inattention, impulsivity, and, in some cases, hyperactivity. The symptoms of hyperactivity, when present, are almost always apparent by the age of 7 and may be present in very young preschoolers. Inattention or attention-deficit may not be evident until a child faces the expectations of elementary school.
• Bipolar Disorder previously referred to as manic depression, goes beyond ordinary highs and lows of mood changes, and is a serious medical condition. The disorder is characterized by periodic episodes of extreme elation, happiness, elevated mood, or irritability (also called mania) countered by periodic, classic major depressive symptoms. The median age of onset is 25. When symptoms are present before the age of 12, they are often confused with ADD/ADHD.
• Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI), or self-harm, by definition is the deliberate, intentional damage to one’s body tissue without the intention of dying. There is no intention of suicide, however, there can be a high correlation with suicide if self-injurious behavior goes untreated. In the US, approximately 14 to 18% of high school students and between 12 to 35% of college students engage in some form of self-injurious behavior at least once. The age of onset often occurs in early adolescence, between the ages of 11 and 14. While self-harm is of serious concern for parents, families, and teachers, it’s important to know that when the right approach and treatment is provided in a timely manner, this behavior is highly treatable. While we often hear about the number of teens who engage in this behavior, the majority who are treated appropriately can go on to lead happy, healthy lives.
• Suicidal behavior is defined as a preoccupation or act that is focused on causing one’s own death voluntarily. Suicidal ideation refers to thoughts of suicide or wanting to take one’s own life. Suicidal behavior refers to actions taken by one who is considering or preparing to cause his or her own death. Suicide attempt usually refers to an act focused on causing one’s own death that is unsuccessful in causing death. Suicide refers to having intentionally caused one’s own death. Talking about suicide is the best way to prevent it. Although it is not possible to predict suicide with any certainty, our best tool is recognition of the signs that many people exhibit when contemplating suicide. These three behaviors should prompt you to seek immediate help for you or a loved one: talking about wanting to die or to kill oneself; looking for a way to kill oneself, such as searching online or obtaining a gun; talking about feeling hopeless or having no reason to live. See the Resources section below for actions to take if you or someone you know needs help. 
• Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR): EMDR enables people of all ages to heal from the symptoms and emotional distress caused by traumatic or disturbing life experiences.  EMDR therapy shows that the mind can in fact heal from psychological trauma much as the body recovers from physical trauma.  When a person experiences trauma or a disturbing life event they tend to get stuck in the emotional pain of the event.  EMDR creates an opportunity for people to move past being stuck so that the healing can resume.  EMDR mimics the body’s inherent mental processing of difficult situations.