Individual Therapy for Children and Adolescents
“We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today.”
–Stacia Tauscher
Age 3-4 years
The focus is on developmental stage, feeling expression and behavior, and relationship to the individuals and the world around them. Parents are very involved to help make whatever situation causing distress feel better and more manageable.
Initial appointment is one hour and with parent/parents/guardian only. The child attends the second appointment.
In these therapy sessions, talk, play, emotional regulation skills, and behavioral techniques are used and then taught to the parents.
Age 5-7 years
The focus is on developmental stage, temperament, personality and emotional style, and the interactions with the current environmental situations and home, school and social life. Parents are involved in helping understand what is bringing on distress, learning behavioral strategies/parenting techniques, and environmental adjustments that help reduce distress and/or make the situation better and more manageable.
Initial appointment is one hour and with parent/parents/guardian only. The child attends the second appointment.
Sessions utilize talking, playing, drawing, emotional regulation skills, mindfulness skills, and behavioral techniques.
Age 7-12 years
The focus is on developmental stage, temperament, personality, and emotional style and the interactions with the current environmental situations at home, school, and social life. Parents are involved in helping understand what is bringing on distress, learning behavioral strategies/parenting techniques, and environmental adjustments that help reduce distress and/or make the situation better and more manageable.
Initial appointment is one hour and with parent/parents/guardian only. The child attends the second appointment.
Sessions utilize talking, playing, drawing, cognitive behavioral strategies, emotional regulation skills, mindfulness techniques, social skills and organizational/school planning techniques.
Age 12-14 years
The focus is on developmental stage, temperament, personality, and emotional style and the interactions with the current environmental situations at home, school, and social life. Parents are involved, but there is more independence and privacy when working with this age group in order to respect developmental needs of differentiation and individuation.
Initial appointment is one hour with parent/parents/guardian only. The adolescent attends the second appointment.
Sessions use talking, playing (depending on the adolescent), drawing, cognitive behavioral strategies, emotional regulation skills, mindfulness techniques, social skills and organizational/school planning techniques and environmental adjustment recommendations.
Age 14-18 years
The focus is on developmental stage, temperament, personality and emotional style, and the interactions with the current environmental situations at home, school and social life. Parents are involved when needed for appropriate understanding and reduction of distress and utilize support and environmental adjustments (if necessary). Parents are privy to clinical diagnostic information and crisis, risky, or potentially life threatening information (to ensure safety). Adolescents at this age have much more privacy when it comes to the content and context of their distress and/or situation. Parental involvement, other than the above stated, is always negotiated with the adolescent.
Initial appointment is one hour and may be with parent/parents/guardian alone (then adolescent attends the second appointment), or parent and adolescent together, or adolescent alone.
Sessions use talk, cognitive behavioral strategies, emotional regulation skills, mindfulness techniques, social skills and organizational/school planning techniques.
