Child Therapy: Anxiety, Behavior & Adoption
Our child therapists have expertise in research based interventions for anxiety, depression, misbehavior and attachment challenges. Our goal is to make you an expert, so you can maintain the gains you make with us. We will teach you the biological, psychological and behavioral causes of challenges, so you understand the specific interventions we teach and can use them for a lifetime! (For our work in the areas of ADHD, Dyslexia and autism, please click here.)
Child Anxiety
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Identification of Type and Cause:
- Stress: Anxiety related to ongoing learning challenges, social challenges, and additive stress
- Generalized Anxiety Disorder – Fear of everything
- Social Anxiety Disorder – Fear of being judged
- Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (Note: If this is the challenge, we will refer you to an expert in this area.)
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Parent Training:
- We will provide you with a great book on parenting an anxious child.
- We will help you understand the biology of anxiety.
- We will help you coach your child through anxiety (CBT) treatment.
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Individual Therapy:
- We teach how the anxious brain and body work to trick your child into believing fears!
- We provide Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).
- We teach about cognitive distortions.
- We teach about automatic negative thoughts.
- We help create school accommodations for Anxiety.
- We teach your child a ‘User’s Manual’ for understanding and talking back to anxiety!
Note: While we work with anxious kids a lot, if your child’s primary challenge is a moderate to severe anxiety disorder, we will refer you to some great specialists with more training in this area. Kids we work with often have anxiety related to another neurological condition (e.g., autism, dyslexia, ADHD) that we are addressing. We do not specialize in childhood depression as a primary condition.
Child Misbehavior, Anger, Moodiness
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Identification of Cause:
- Opposition & Defiance may due to biological or behavioral issues.
- Biological Issues: anxiety, ADHD, sensory integration, depression.
- Behavioral Issues: lack of parent knowledge about child development, sibling challenges, divorce, abuse/neglect
- Misbehavior may be due to parenting that is not appropriate to the child’s developmental age.
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Collaborative Problem Solving & Behavior Management:
- We teach developmentally appropriate and research based behavior management skills.
- We primarily use Collaborative Problem Solving (Greene & Ablone) and Your Defiant Child or Your Defiant Teen (Barkley).
- We co-create structured, developmentally achievable goals to create self-esteem and self-respect.
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Character Development:
- We teach character development and self esteem.
- We create a safe, trusted relationship to model respect.
Adoption / Reactive Attachment Disorder
Note: We are not ‘adoption specialists’. We work with many adopted kids in relation to their challenges with defiance, behavior, learning challenges, inattention, mood management, etc.
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Understand the cause:
- We teach how kids develop Reactive Attachment Disorder.
- We teach how RAD changes the young brain to be more anxious/angry.
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Treatment:
- Co-existing Challenges: It is important to rule out other common challenges: ADHD, depression, learning differences, sibling jealousy.
- Parent Training: Parent intervention is similar to the Anxiety & Behavioral interventions above. RAD kids need parents to understand their anxiety and appropriately deal with their behavior, while creating a safe home.
- Individual Therapy: Kids need to understand their RAD brain! Their biology tells them to attach, but they have learned that is dangerous. This push/pull is scary and causes a lot of anxiety.
College Kids
Some kids need extra support when they leave home. College is a life-changing adventure that requires bravery, self-awareness and skill. We often serve as mentors regarding relationship, sexuality, academic, time management and stress challenges for local kids.
