Children

Child psychology is one of the many branches of psychology and one of the most studied specialty areas.  This type of therapy focuses on the mind and behavior of children.  The age of children being studied ranges from prenatal through adolescence. 

The types of child therapy are very diverse to match the children’s age and mental abilities.  The types of therapy for children include: play therapy, art therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, behavior therapy, parent training, and family therapy.  We offer all these types of therapy at Cornerstone Psychological Associates.  We can tailor your therapy to your family’s needs and your child’s personality.

For younger children therapy can use toys, drawings, play, and imagination to recreate problem situations and work out how to cope with the emotions they are feeling.  Behavior training for younger children can teach them how to act in a difficult situation.  The child is taught by experience and modeling how to behave and how to manage his / her feelings.  This type of therapy is good for younger children who think in more concrete terms.   It is safer for children to address emotional issues through objects, art, or in imagination.

Therapy for adolescents can explore and be curious about what the teen understands about the problem issue.  The child needs empathy and acceptance of their point of view first.  Then the teen can be led to possible solutions to the situation.  Finally, the teen can be helped to think about the consequences to those choices.  Working from the inside out for older children or teens brings long lasting change in their behavior and moods.

It is important to recognize that many childhood disorders and conditions can have overlapping symptoms that are expressed differently within the context of the child’s situation (e.g., home or school).  For example, inattention is one symptom that can be readily seen in children with a number of disorders including anxiety, depression, Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Learning Disabilities, and Auditory Processing Disorder.  Our therapists can help you differentiate what the symptom means.

The therapists at Cornerstone Psychological Associates can help you decode your child’s behavior and understand why a child or teen is acting the way they do.  We can offer you specific steps to follow in your home to change the unwanted behavior.  There are ways to teach your child to be respectful, responsible, and fun to be around. 

There are steps to follow to teach your child to solve their own problems.  You can guide the child to solve their problems and develop critical problem solving skills.  You can teach responsible behavior and bring the fun back into your home and family again.  We can help you sort out who should own the problem.  We can teach you to hand the problem back to the child to solve without feeling guilty. 

There are logical ways to respond to even the most out of control child’s behavior.  There are relationship interventions and behavioral strategies that allow you to be back in control of yourself and the home again. 

If your family has gone through a stressful event, the children are just as strongly impacted as you are at this time.  It is important to keep the standards, rules, routines, consequences as stable as possible.  Many parents want to console the child by turning off rules and responsibilities.  This scares the children because it is another change in an already changing situation.  Their behavior often gets worse or more shut down because of the change.  Retaining rules, consequences, and routines helps the children feel safer sooner. 

You can be bigger, stronger, wiser, and loving to the children when they are falling apart.  This is what they need from you.  Things that could overwhelm them include a move to another home or school, loss of a family member or loss of a pet, divorce, death of a family member, or other similar big event.  Children often react to the loss of a pet like the loss of a sibling.  Your help in managing these big feelings is very important at times like these.  If you don’t know how to manage these big feelings for yourself or your children, we can help.  It is not too late to correct past problems.  If this event happened in the past and the children are still acting out, we can help you and your children recover.

We offer many ways to change problem behavior or mood issues.  The counselors at Cornerstone Psychological Associates would like to help.  Call today for your initial consultation (208) 373-0790.   You will be glad you did.