Mental Health Services
Exceptional mental health care for children, adolescents, parents, and families.
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Child Therapy
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Adolescent Therapy
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TEEN Adolescent Therapy
Pediatric Mental Health Services
Why do kids need therapy?
Therapeutic services for children and adolescents may involve exploration and resolution of some combination of the following common childhood issues:
Anxiety, worry, nervousness
Difficulty managing overwhelming emotions.
Separation anxiety
Exposure to trauma
School problems i.e. academic performance, school avoidance, peer-related issues, problematic classroom behaviors.
Oppositional, defiant behaviors
Changes in behavior
Hyperactivity, impulsivity
Disruptive, aggressive behaviors
Mood swings
Sadness, depression
Sibling conflict
Low self-esteem
Sensory sensitivities
Problems related to recent life transitions or adjustments.
Parent-child conflict
Sleep-related issues
Conflict in relationships and difficulties with peers
Anger, irritability
Attention, focus, concentration, organization, memory
Skill Building
During therapy your child is likely to…
Learn emotional regulation skills
Develop coping skills for responding to stressors
Explore and resolve issues related to trauma
Strengthen executive functioning, i.e. attention, focus, impulsivity, memory, organization
Increase self-esteem and confidence
Increase independent problem-solving skills
Improve quality of life (for child + household)
Improve communication and interpersonal effectiveness
Learn and practice age-appropriate social skills
What will therapy look like for my child?
What you should know about child and adolescent therapy
Child and adolescent treatment services begin with a Diagnostic Evaluation. This initial session will be scheduled for 60-90 minutes and starts with a review of informed consent, limits to confidentiality, HIPAA privacy practices, and agency policies.
This initial session will also involve an exploration and comprehensive overview of the child’s developmental history, significant events, household and relationship dynamics, presenting concerns, and is when the initial treatment goals, interventions, and plan is established. Diagnostic evaluations may be parent-only or together with the child, depending on age of the child and other considerations which are discussed with the clinician prior to scheduling.
As a primary caregiver, your engagement in therapy will be essential to your child’s treatment progress, and regular participation in conjoint or parent-only sessions will be required if your child is under the age of 10.
Adolescents 14+ years have the right to consent to their own mental health treatment, and should not be pressured to participate in therapeutic services.
Treatment services may include individual therapy sessions, as well family-focused sessions, and parent-only sessions, as will be determined by the presenting issues and treatment goals for your child and discussed with the clinician through the treatment process.
Child Therapy
Ages 0-10 Years
The initial session for your child is scheduled for 60-90 minutes and will be parent*-only.
Informed consent, HIPAA privacy practices, and agency policies will also be reviewed during this initial session.
This first session will consist of an exploration and comprehensive overview of developmental history, significant events, household and relationship dynamics, presenting concerns, and is when therapeutic goals are discussed and an initial treatment plan is established.
Parents should leave this initial session feeling optimistic about the treatment plan established with the clinician, along with a few recommendations for preliminary intervention strategies to get started right away.
Diagnostic Evaluation
Completing this first session without your child present will allow for your child’s first interaction with the clinician to be a neutral, exploratory experience at their preferred pace.
The initial parent discussion also serves to inform the clinician of relevant historical information and allows parents to express their concerns openly without creating a potentially distressing experience for your child.
Parents will remain closely involved with their child’s therapy, as recommended by the clinician.
Ongoing Therapy Sessions
Parent, guardian, and primary caregiver participation is essential for child therapy to be successful at this age. Children have limited insight, particularly those younger than 10 years, are not great historians, and are rarely forthcoming about their challenging behaviors and symptoms.
Traditional talk therapy is therefore not effective, and also not enjoyable for children at this age.
Your child’s clinician will coach you to understand your role before, during, and after each therapy session.
Therapy may be comprised of individual child sessions, parent-only sessions for support and coaching, or family-focused sessions involving household or other family members, based on presenting concerns and treatment goals.
During therapy sessions, the clinician will engage your child using play-based strategies to build trust and rapport and create a therapeutic space that is fun and inviting - at least at first - or they may never want to return.
While your child may be convinced they are coming to therapy to play, the clinician will also be performing critical assessments of your child’s symptoms, behavior, temperament, and skills in order to identify strengths and challenges, explore impact of historical events and current stressors, rule out neurodevelopment disorders, and establish an appropriate diagnosis and treatment plan.
Child therapy will not be effective if your child does not trust their provider and enjoy participating in therapy.
(at least most of the time ☺️)
Adolescent Therapy
Ages 11-13 Years
Diagnostic Evaluation
The initial session for your child will be scheduled for 60-90 minutes and may be *parent-only OR together with your child. Informed consent, HIPAA privacy practices, and agency policies will also be reviewed during this initial session.
Whether your child should join this initial is determined by: presenting concerns, your child’s social/emotional maturity, and your child’s ability to engage insightfully in discussions related to their challenges.
If your child is easily bored, distractible, irritable, and at times hyperactive, a parent-only initial session is recommended.
This first session will consist of an exploration and comprehensive overview of developmental history, significant events, household and relationship dynamics, presenting concerns, and is when therapeutic goals are discussed and an initial treatment plan is established.
Parents will remain involved with their child’s therapy, as recommended by the clinician.
The initial parent discussion also serves to inform the clinician of relevant historical information and allows parents to express their concerns openly without creating a potentially distressing experience for your child if present.
Additional evidence-based outcome measures and questionnaires may also be used to further assess your adolescent’s symptoms.
Parents should leave this initial session feeling optimistic about the treatment plan established with the clinician, along with a few recommendations for preliminary intervention strategies to get started right away.
Ongoing Therapy Sessions
Parent, guardian, and primary caregiver participation is recommended for therapy to be successful at this age. Adolescent patients sometimes have difficulty identifying and describing their challenging behaviors and symptoms verbally. Patients in this age group are offered a session-by-session option between individual or conjoint sessions with parent(s), based on their comfortability. Therapy is likely to incorporate parent-only sessions or consultations, especially if your child prefers to meet individually with the clinician during sessions.
Therapeutic approach is likely to incorporate both interactive play and traditional talk therapy for adolescents this age, as social/emotional maturity, insight, and confidence in self-expression is still developing.
Your adolescent’s clinician will coach you to understand your role before, during, and after each therapy session.
Therapy may be comprised of individual child sessions, parent-only sessions for support and coaching, and family-focused sessions involving household or other family members, based on presenting concerns and treatment goals.
Teen Therapy
Ages 14-17 Years
Diagnostic Evaluation
Teen adolescents 14+ have the right to consent to their own mental health treatment, and should not be pressured to participate in therapeutic services.
Teen adolescent patients should assist in the completion of intake paperwork distributed prior to service initiation.
Despite the fact that your teenage adolescent may need a ride to the initial session, parents also serve a purpose at the start of therapy [insert sarcastic eye roll common among the teenagers]. The initial session for your teen adolescent will be scheduled for 60-90 minutes. Parent is to join at start of session to review informed consent, HIPAA privacy practices, limits to confidentiality and agency policies.
This first session will consist of an exploration and comprehensive overview of developmental history, significant events, household and relationship dynamics, presenting concerns, and is when therapeutic goals are discussed and an initial treatment plan is established.
Additional evidence-based outcome measures and questionnaires may be used during this initial session to further assess the adolescent patient’s symptoms.
Parent participation in the initial session also serves to inform the clinician of relevant historical information (from parent perspective) and allows parents to express their concerns and suggest goals for treatment.
Parents will be asked to share presenting concerns with the clinician during the initial phone consultation for services prior to scheduling the intake session for their teen adolescent. Parents will be invited to share concerns and goals for treatment in the presence of the patient, unless the patient requests to be excused to allow for a private conversation between parent and clinician.
Parents may be asked to leave the initial session once these steps are completed, unless the teen patient prefers for the parent to stay for the entirety of the session. Whether parents join for the duration of the session is up to the teen adolescent patient.
Limits to confidentiality will be discussed with parent and teen patient together, and again individually with the patient during sessions.
Ongoing Therapy Sessions
Parents are encouraged to support their teen adolescent’s participation in therapy by offering a nonjudgmental ear and inviting a conversation following sessions, while also assuring their teen that it is up to their complete discretion if and what they share about their therapy sessions with the clinician.
Parents will be invited to participate in regular treatment plan reviews to discuss progress towards patient goals.
Parent participation in therapy, whether via conjoint sessions with the patient or separate parent-only sessions may be recommended for parent coaching, addressing issues in family dynamics, to advocate for patient health, or for crisis planning in cases of imminent patient risk.
Parent participation in therapy will first be discussed with the teen adolescent patient to prioritize preservation of the therapeutic relationship between clinician and teen patient unless the clinician has reasonable concern for the teen patient’s safety and parent involvement is necessary to prevent injury or harm.