Psychotherapy with children

Parenting can be complicated and is frequently a difficult job, as children have very different temperaments, based on birth order in the family, biology, culture and experiences and the parenting they receive. Their personalities, moods, behaviours and relationship patterns are greatly influenced by their environment and, because parents play such a significant role in the child’s environment, they are often too close to be able to view and understand their child’s behaviour objectively. This can cause stress within their parent-child relationship.

Traumatic experiences such as separation, divorce and domestic violence often leave children caught up in the middle of parental conflict. The loss of a close family member, alcohol or drug abuse or family crises can result in overwhelming sadness and anger and pose huge difficulties for children, as they are very aware and sensitive to stress in family life. Because children have less experience, fewer coping skills and less control over their environment, yet react strongly to events happening within their environment, they will usually show their distress in indirect ways such as being irritable, developing sleeping or eating problems, displaying personality changes, disregarding personal safety, developing physical complaints, anxieties and phobias and generally having problems getting along with others and with performance at school.

I work to create insight and understanding by the family members into the child’s behaviour and difficult feelings, and suggest ideas to promote change to help the child get back on track with their life.

My work with adolescents is similar to the therapy undertaken by adults; an opportunity for them to focus on themselves, their experience both current and in earlier childhood, their relationships and on difficulties with family or peers as well as their hopes, dreams and fears. While personal information shared between children and myself is confidential, feedback and concerns are shared with parents as well as suggesting ways to improve a challenging parent-child relationship. I try to be fair and objective, while creating better insight into difficult feelings. My goal is to create a safe space where I can help family members to feel supported:

• In communicating
• Gaining awareness and insight about each other
• Developing new skills to create new experiences, fostering realistic expectations that enhance relationships.

In summary, children and adolescents can experience problems for all sorts of reasons, the causes of which are often not obvious and can require the experience of a psychotherapist to help family members understand the source and purpose of behaviour and identify ways to resolve the underlying issues.