Child Counseling
Child Counseling & Parent Coaching
As a parent you only want the best for your child! You want them to be both healthy and happy! To value their abilities, to have confidence in themselves, to think for themselves, enjoy their talents, be more compassionate, have good values, treat other people well, have morals we respect and admire, be proud of themselves (but not arrogant or boastful), to have purpose and meaning to their lives and much more.
Unfortunately, life doesn't always follow the script we imagined and dreamed of for our children. As life can come with some unexpected twist and turns, hardships, pain and suffering and/or hard to manage moods. It's during these times that we as parents need help bigger than ourselves in order to help the person/people we hold closest to our hearts with either their struggles, stresses, situation, intense emotions or challenges.
We would love to help. Either we've been down that path your on or have the professional expertise to help you. To walk with you. To carry some of the weight you’ve been carrying and help your child with:
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Anger, Anxiety, Depression
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Behavior Problems
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Strong Willed/Oppositional
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Conflict
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Divorce adjustment
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Executive Functioning
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Emotional Disregulation
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Grief + Loss
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Life transitions
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Mood Disorders
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Struggling with Socially and Relationally
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Stressors
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Sensory and Emotional sensitivities
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School Pressures and Peer Relationships
When you seek therapy for your child at Traveling Light Counseling:
Our heart and goal is to help you as the parent understand your child's unique needs and develop ways to help them in their personal healing or growth process. Our passion is to help them be the best version of self and transition into adulthood as happy, healthy and thirsty adults. Thirsty for life, continued growth, purpose and a thirst to live life to their fullest.
Traveling Light is the place for parents who are looking to help their children better manage life’s situations, transitions, challenges, losses, traumas, hurts and pains so they will have more balanced behaviors, thoughts, and emotions. With our main goal being that they don't carry unnecessary baggage into their adult life.
What The Counseling Process Looks Like
Counseling (or therapy, psychotherapy) is the process your child/teen meeting with a therapist (or counselor) in order to reduce internal suffering which occurs in the form of problematic behaviors, beliefs, feelings and somatic responses (sensations in the body). In addition, ongoing psychotherapy is a useful means of self-growth and self-discovery. It is meant to help your child/teen build coping skills to be able to handle negative experiences and emotions. Together with a counselor, they will learn, grow, explore, unpack and understand themself, their world, their suffering and their experiences with new perspective, insight and clarity. Therapy can also help children/teens to resolve barriers which interfere with positive qualities such as joy, compassion, peace, self-esteem, spiritual connection and love. Many children/teens enjoy therapy and relish the journey of becoming more conscious about themselves, their inner world and their relationships. Therapy can also be an effective tool in overcoming the effects of trauma and abuse.
Your child and their therapist will meet together weekly for 45-minute sessions. Therapy is best done with at least an 8-week commitment. We find that clients who cannot commit to at least 8 weekly sessions and meet less than weekly tend to have more difficulty in establishing a relationship with their therapist and often spend their sessions recapping the previous weeks instead of focusing on forward movement. After 8 weekly sessions, you and your therapist can discuss the movement toward your treatment goals and whether reducing sessions to biweekly or terminating therapy is the next step. Despite the 8 week recommendation the process and therapy is a unique process and is discussed during the intake and assessment phase. After 8 weekly sessions, you and your therapist can discuss the movement toward your treatment goals and whether reducing sessions to biweekly or terminating therapy is the next step as this a process that is very personalized to everyones unique situation.
Here's what to expect:
Intake & Assessment: 1-2 Sessions
Treatment
Together, in each subsequent session, your child's counselor will give space for your child to be able to talk and work through the sitaution, problem, truama, grief or stressor that brought you to counseling. The counselor will use various strategies from DBT techniques, CBT, art therapy, sand tray therapy, homework (for the child AND parents) and games that promote healthy communication, emotional expression, improved problem solving skills and much more.
Termination: Final Session
Phasing Out
In your child's final sessions, you, your child and the therapist will review the treatment goals to ensure you are satisfied with your child's counseling experience and that the work with your therapist has met your expectations and needs of your child. Sessions will be staggared as we prepare for termination. This is a time to make sure that your child is ready to start the next chapter of life with more independence and can effectively utilize the skills and tools learned in sessions.
What's my role as a client?
The main responsibilities are for your child to attend their scheduled individual and/or group sessions with a commitment to learning about themself, how you relate to others, and how they can make changes in their life to reach the desired goals.
formulating goals and developing a plan for meeting them, everyone will benefit most from entering counseling with a commitment to actively making positive changes in their life. You as well as them (depending on the age) may find it helpful to note cirucmstatnces, relationships, or events in thier life that are troubling or create problems. Your counselor may ask you and your child to consider the process by which these situations negatively affect you and your child and may encourage you and your child to try a new startegy or to experiment with different approaches to help you achieve the positive change you are seeking.
In the end, you will feel so much better knowing your child is receiving the professional help they need.
Let the adventure begin to a lighter and brighter tomorrow with the unpacking of today's struggles in order to receive tomorrow's blessings! We are honored that you have chosen Traveling Light Counseling to meet the unique needs of your child!
Call 772-361-8448 x1 to schedule a therapy session for child counseling today.