Child Psychotherapy

Helplessness and despair sit heavy on your chest.

Despite your best intentions, your child continues to struggle.

Their school performance has tanked, and they just can’t make friends.

Now, worst of all, they’ve begun to act out and you feel pushed away.

You can see your child is “not happy.”

You have read the child rearing and pop psychology books, wishing you could find the right technique, the right manual to deal with your child’s behavior.

Yet your preschooler or school age child looks withdrawn and fearful and your teen ager appears angry and “closed off.”

How can you trust that the “growing pains” will pass, that this is just a “difficult transition” in your child’s or teen’s life?

As a parent, you really cannot deceive yourself for too long.

You have trouble finding what makes “you” happy, yet you are determined to “make your child happy.”

The feeling of responsibility about giving your children what you did not have, what you missed out on, presses on you.

And yet, the more you try, the more confused and entangled you feel. And whatever you do to help is only temporary.

Another issue arises…

The child’s anxiety and behavior are often intertwined with a parent’s worries and wishes. Your worries and anxieties are often intertwined with your child’s anxieties.

And yet you are also separate beings, with individual wishes, desires, wants and needs.

How do we help your child and you and your partner look at what’s happening, while still nurturing individuality? How can you be together and fully see one another? How can you grow together?

You see parts of yourself in your child.

Parents’ generosity and willingness to do “everything” they can to help their children often surprises me.

Their disappointment and pain in feeling like they have failed is palpable, often all-consuming. Parents cannot make their children “all better,” they cannot not spare their children the pain of growing up.

And when the child is ready to grow beyond the anxieties, the parents also find themselves changing.

The opposite is also true.

When your child is anxious, you worry about her development and what those fears might mean. You can see that something is getting in her way of being able to just “be a child.”

You’re right, her fears and anxieties are telling you she can’t be in a creative space, that the world feels scary and difficult, that teachers feel demanding, that family members look at her as if “something is wrong with her.”

My early clinical work focused on the treatment of young children diagnosed with severe ADHD and autism. This educated me about how children adapt and develop.

In Child Psychotherapy, I am your partner in understanding what is occurring to your child.

You, as the parent, are very much a part of this process of change.

Play therapy has been found to be very helpful in alleviating a child’s anxiety and depressive symptoms, similarly to adult psychotherapy.

That’s wonderful! We know change is possible.

I am here to listen for and catch those changes, highlight them for your child and you, from a slightly different perspective than yours.

I have the advantage of not being your child’s parent or your spouse.

I am in a position to help you and your child.

My role is to witness your child at his/her emotional and developmental level and facilitate the expression of where she needs to be at that moment.

I am your ally in understanding what is happening in your child, in you as a parent and between the two of you.

Help your child reclaim the creative space.

Let’s talk about how we can help your child and you get to a space where the anxieties and fears are no longer driving your everyday thoughts.

We want your energy to be focused on allowing your child’s growth to occur as it needs to, so that you can be a partner in your child’s or teen’s growth and feel confident in your parenting skills.

We work through the process of anxiety, helping you and your child access that “playing” space, where you both can explore and try out new ideas that lead you back to feeling ok.

Call me today at (443) 333-9647 to schedule you free 20-minute phone consultation.