Psychotherapy for Children (5-12)

Young people often do not have the particular support or skills they need to face the many evolving stresses they encounter. Extreme academic pressures, family pressures and challenges, and peer problems would overburden even the most earnest and resilient adult; but for children, when their parents and siblings are also coping and trying to adjust, the situation can trigger emergency coping mechanisms that turn into long-term compensation patterns. Children often do not have the psychic coherence or skills to deal with loss, adjustment, and a sense of alienation.

I utilize child-centered and strength-based play, expressive arts, sandplay, dance, and physical exercises to support your child as they work through developmental blocks, process what is distressing them, and become what their nature is trying to unfold.

One unique aspect of child therapy is how profoundly powerless the child is to change their environment. They are doing their best to cope and communicate what they need. Often, they are responding in the only ways available to them. In addition to working with children 1-2 times per week, I will typically meet with parents or other caregivers once a month, depending on need and age of child, to provide coaching and to discuss how best to support both the child and yourself as a caregiver.

A Note on COVID

Psychotherapy is an optimized setting for a child to sort out their feelings and grieve what many might not even realize they’ve lost. While the pandemic is bigger than us, and we cannot make it go away, it is helpful to understand what is happening inside. We can develop ways of coping creatively with the cultural trauma, along with the communal and familial effects of COVID-19.

The pandemic has introduced new family stressors, as well as new barriers to healthy emotional development. Social deprivation for both children and their caregivers, increased use of screens, and the changed experience of school, with its many constraints and fears, have all kept children from cultivating connections with peers and supportive adults—a process that is vital for self-esteem and a sense of belonging.

Particularly because of the negative impact of social isolation, I work with children in person. Many of the challenges children face are exacerbated by the lack of directly embodied co-regulation, which is essential to helping them learn to regulate themselves. Also, we don’t yet know the full impact on children of fixing their attention on the small area of a screen, but we do know that socially connected movement and play are vital for mental and physical health. This is something I can provide in the office, but not over telehealth. I will use telehealth to maintain continuity of support when in-person is not possible, but not as the primary mode of treatment.