Child Therapy (Ages 3-12)
We offer highly skilled, efficacious individual child therapy, including Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), Child Centered Play Therapy (CCPT), Theraplay, Exposure and Response Prevention Therapy (ERP), and Parent Skills and Coaching. Our CBT, CCPT and other therapies all utilize play as the primary language of young children. Approaching children therapeutically through play helps them to openly communicate, connect, and more easily resolve troubling issues, express feelings, develop problem-solving skills, learn new ways of relating to others, and modify behaviors. Our therapists work closely with parents and caregivers to collaborate as a team to support the emotional growth of children.
How do I know my child needs therapy?
Children might benefit from therapy if they are struggling more than usual for the child’s age, especially feelings or behaviors that interfere with their functioning, such as intense worries, separating from family members, difficulty following rules or managing impulses, or experiencing family stress due to illness, grief, or family separation.
What is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)?
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a highly effective group of evidenced-based treatments that places an emphasis on helping children learn to be their own therapists. Through exercises in the session, as well as “homework” exercises outside of sessions, children are taught to develop coping skills, whereby they can learn to change their own thinking, problematic emotions and behavior. CBT treatment usually involves efforts to change thinking patterns. These strategies might include learning to calm the mind, relax the body, and recognize distortions in thinking that are creating problems. Children also develop problem-solving skills to cope with difficult situations and learn to develop a greater sense of confidence in their own abilities.
What is Child Centered Play Therapy?
Child Centered Play Therapy (CCPT) is an effective, developmentally responsive, play-based mental health intervention for young children ages 3 to 10 who are experiencing social, emotional, behavioral and relational disorders. CCPT utilizes play, the natural language of children. The therapeutic relationship provides a safe, consistent therapeutic environment in which a child can experience full acceptance, empathy, learn impulse control and other skills, and understanding and process inner experiences and feelings through play and symbols.
What is Filial Therapy?
Filial therapy is an evidenced-based treatment, closely related to Child Centered Play Therapy that invites parents and caregivers to be the direct agents of therapeutic change. These sessions are often called “special playtime.”The therapist will work directly with each family to make an individualized plan to fit specifically to each family’s interests and needs. Parents are trained to provide their own child-centered play sessions, with empathy and clear limits.
What is Exposure and Response Prevention Therapy (ERP)?
Exposure and Response Prevention Therapy (ERP) is the “gold standard” of treatment for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) in children. A number of our therapists are highly trained in this specialized treatment. Parents and children initially hear the word “exposure” and are worried treatment could be scary, but ERP allows children to manage their fears, go at their own pace and feel successful right from the start. The “Response Prevention” part of ERP helps clients learn to comfortably control compulsions, avoidance and/or escape behaviors. Once clients have better control over their compulsions, their obsessive thinking naturally comes into balance.
What is SPACE?
SPACE stands for Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions. It was developed at the Yale Child Study Center and is a parent-based treatment program for children and adolescents with anxiety, OCD, and related problems. Unlike most therapy sessions, the child does not attend the treatment sessions. Instead, the SPACE therapist works directly with the Parents and Caregivers to learn the skills and tools necessary to help their child overcome anxiety, OCD or other related problems.