Counseling for Children and Adolescents
Childhood, pre-teen, and adolescent years can be very difficult for both children and parents alike. This is a time when we as human beings develop the foundation of our individual sense of self. Our clinicians provide professional counseling to help children and adolescents and their families navigate through this often challenging time.
As human beings, we first develop communication, socialization, and interaction with others during childhood. Children learn primarily through imitating their parents, caregivers, and other adults around them. Generally speaking, they will take the values and beliefs of those who are raising them—of those who are closest to them. As they grow in years, children move into being a pre-teen, which is between the ages of 9 and 11 years old. At this time, they naturally begin to question the values and beliefs they had taken on in childhood. Their thinking deepens to where they are no longer children but are not yet adults, which means that at one moment they are very calm and rational while the next, they may be acting like they are five again. Although physically they have grown taller, pre-teens have not yet entered the hormonal changes which will take them into adulthood. Some conflict is normal at this stage, and outside support, encouragement, and perspective can be very helpful.
During adolescence, a teenager is experiencing change from every side: physical growth and development, deepening logical thinking, fluctuating emotions, and broadening their understanding of social interactions in addition to finding their place in the world. At times, the changes they experience can be very confusing at best. Socially, adolescents are moving farther into their own circles of friends, and, naturally, farther away from their parents and caregivers as a way of learning how to interact with the world. The struggle then becomes for the adolescent: Who knows me best? One of the keys during adolescence is learning how to have an interdependence with both their parents and their social world, learning the value of having multiple sources to lean on.
Our clinicians have a large amount of experience working with children and adolescents in a variety of different ways and approach them in the world they are in. They are experienced with addiction, co-occurring diagnoses, depression, trauma, anxiety, self-esteem, and adjustment to transitions such as divorce, grief, loss, changing schools or environments, peer relationships, behavioral problems, and attention difficulties. In addition, our clinicians also work with Autism (see our page on Autism under counseling). Our approach in counseling children and adolescents is to consider their physical, social, economic, mental, and linguistic environment. We seek to identify and develop strength and growth while helping them reduce stress and increase their coping skills. At times, we invite family, friends, teachers, and caregivers to join if bringing people in assists the client. Our clinicians also work with adolescents ranging from every day problems to the complexities of trauma, mental illness, at-risk components, foster care, and depression.
When to seek counseling for children and adolescents:
One of the most important times to seek counseling for children and adolescents is when you are watching your child isolate themselves, make unexplained changes, move into risky behaviors, or when they appear lost or unreachable. For many children and teens, these are the places where we as parents have done everything we can do on our own.
Children under the age of 11 are seldom able to ask for assistance such as counseling. They may ask for help from their parents or family members, but generally adults, parents, and caregivers may have to make the decision for them. Even though children may not want, or be willing, to enter counseling, it can still be very effective as the child goes and begins to build a relationship with their counselor. With adolescents 12 and up, asking for help can still be difficult, but they do sometimes. When they do, those are the best moments to seek a counselor for them.
