FAQ

What IS CHILD THERAPY?

Child Therapy is a counseling intervention that is used with children who are experiencing a challenging time or difficult circumstance of life. Depending on the age of the child who is experiencing the issue, play therapy using toys or art supplies is used as a technique to access and draw out a child’s inner world of thoughts and feelings. For older children, verbal conversations with a therapist, similar to an adult in talk therapy, can be useful to help a child to identify and express feelings that need to be processed in order to pass through whatever challenge with which the child is struggling. Child therapy can last just a few sessions to achieve specific small goals or can be a series of sessions over a period of months or years for children who are experiencing larger stressors or benefit from structured emotional support protocols.
 

WHAT IS FAMILY THERAPY?

Family Therapy is an intervention similar to standard individual talk therapy where therapeutic conversations between family members are facilitated by a therapist. Family therapists are trained to use dynamics that exist in relationships systems to help family members communicate more effectively and understand other family members better than was previously happening. By understanding how communication and emotions in relationships can cause conflict or anxiety, a family therapist helps the members of the family discover intentions and motivations underlying the arguments to shift a challenging time for a family into an opportunity to become closer as a family.

What IS Parent-Child Interaction THERAPY?

Parent-Child Interaction Therapy is a 14-week series of counseling sessions to address your child’s behavioral needs. It is an evidence-based intervention that has been proven to reduce disruptive child behaviors like whining, bickering with siblings, sassing adults and other stubborn habits in young children. PCIT reduces anxiety and depression in children as well as improves cooperative behavior by reducing defiant attitudes. Parent-Child Interaction Therapy does all this through first having the therapist measure how your child reacts to parent attention during relaxing play and during typical parent-requested tasks for the child. After observation, the parent is taught and then coached how to manage the child’s misbehavior through an ear bud microphone. Parents learn strategic skills to employ while playing together to increase warmth in the parent-child relationship. This renewed collaborative energy in the child is then utilised to motivate the child to completing a task they might normally resist doing when asked. The child behavior is measured throughout the 14 weeks along with assessment of parent skill development and measurement of parent satisfaction in child behavior improvements. When measurements indicate a child is continuing to be defiant, then parents are taught to use loving and firm verbal directions and coached to follow through consistently with age appropriate consequences. When a parent is coached in the moment, the ear bud directions give the parent the authority and the confidence to use scientifically proven techniques with a personalized delivery system. PCIT is a truly effective program using science and emotion-centered child therapy blended together for parents to be able to learn to be their child’s behavior management specialist!
 

What is play therapy?

Play Therapy is a powerful tool for addressing cognitive, behavioral, and emotional challenges. Licensed clinicians use play to help clients better process their experiences and develop more effective strategies for managing their worlds.