Children and adolescents need to be heard and need to express their feelings. They need to find a balance between tension & relaxation, sadness & happiness, confidence & humility. They need help and understanding in why and how things happen.
Are you as a parent struggling to give emotional support to your child, pre-teen or teenager? Connect Therapies can help. Therapy provides a space and a means to emotional support. As Connect Therapies clients, children and adolescents learn to balance emotions through art therapy techniques and dialogue with their therapist. They learn to balance tension and relaxation through somatic experience (locating emotion in the body vs. the brain). They learn balance between confidence and humility (when it is appropriate to be assertive, how to set appropriate boundaries, positive communication skills).
What happens when you come to therapy?
We will have an initial conversation abut your child on the phone. If there is a complex back history we will meet with one or both parents to hear and to learn more about what has been going on. We will then book a session for your child. We will talk briefly at the end of this session and if the young person expresses interest in continuing, if we think therapy will be beneficial and you feel that this si a “good fit” for your child, you will be invited to make a short term commitment of six sessions.
After six sessions we will review and discuss if ongoing therapy would be useful and possible. Short term interventions of 12- 24 sessions are preferred (usually closer to twelve session and with insurance guidelines observed). Occasionally medium to long term therapy may be required. This will be reviewed on a regular basis.
Everything that happens in a therapy session is confidential unless we have concerns about your child’s safety or the safety of others as outlined int eh Informed Consent documents. We will give some generic feedback and parenting pointes when appropriate. If your child is participating in art therapy interventions, the art work will be stored securely. The art work belongs to your child who may choose to take some or all of it away when therapy is completed. We will give you guidance on how to respond to the art work and to sessions when we meet.