Children and Youth Counseling Services
Being young can mean many things. It can be a time of exploration, of energy and excitement, of new friendships, of discovering who one is. At times, it can also be filled with complexities, challenges, and uncomfortable situations and relationships.
At Love Therapy Center, our Children and Youth Counseling Services help young people navigate whatever is happening in their lives. This could be anything from stress with school, feeling depressed, bullying, “acting out” at home or in class, social relationships, challenges with family members, self-esteem issues, and more.
Therapy can be fun!
Did you know that therapy can involve things like listening to or making music, drawing, writing, painting, or even playing games? It can!
For our younger clients, in particular, it can be important to find ways in which to express challenging feelings and ideas that are somewhat different than talk therapy. This may involve something called Play Therapy, which is basically what it sounds like, a way to conduct therapy that involves play. Play therapy perhaps involves toys, games, puppets, or other objects familiar to the child.
Skeptical about how play could be beneficial in therapy? No problem, we got you covered. You may want to check out this article, which explains some of the benefits of play therapy.
On the other hand, you or your child may be someone who shares best through talking, and that is just fine! Talk therapy remains a great option as well.
How we can help
Therapy can look a little different for each person depending on their interests, needs, and development. We will work with you to find the tools most suited to your personality, growth, and well-being.
This may include using something called EMDR to help re-process old, stuck feelings and events that have happened in your life that continue to cause you problems today. We may want to use CBT to help identify the thoughts and beliefs that are holding you back and find new ways of perceiving situations that help you feel and function better. Perhaps you might wish to have better luck talking to your peers at school or your family members at home. If so, we have communication skills designed to help with just that. If a school or home life is causing you stress, we may want to look at ways of managing those feelings while also dealing with the underlying root issues. If you are a parent and you are hoping to help your child find better ways of reacting to situations in their life, we can look at a variety of factors and tools to assist with that as well.
Whatever you are dealing with, we are here to help!
Coming Together as a Family
Family therapy is a great way to address challenges both within the family unit and youth individually. Every family experiences challenge from time to time, even if everyone is doing their absolute best. Having a trained counselor to assist in discussing things with each other can help families better understand one another and work to resolve important issues.
Family therapy can be a useful addition to individual counseling sessions or a very beneficial process all on its own.
