Child Therapy
Are you finding it difficult to help your child through stressful moments?
Is your child blowing up or having meltdowns more than what you’d expect from their age?
Is your child struggling to make and keep friendships?
Is your child particularly shy and reserved?
Is your child stuck in rigid patterns that affect the whole family?
Children are at a very vulnerable age to be negatively affected by mental health. In fact, 70 percent of mental health disorders have their onset in childhood or adolescence (Government of Canada, 2006). The big shifts at home and school that our children have endured because of the pandemic are now having a lasting impact on them socially and developmentally. We are seeing more anxiety, low mood, difficulty regulating emotions, and a delay in social skills across all ages.
At Brookhaven, we love using creativity, imagination and play to work with children. We understand that kids are under enormous stressors. The ability to be resilient is time and time again shown to be related to having access to positive supports and emotional outlets in one’s life. Children need to learn it is okay to feel, acceptable to hurt, and feel safe in their worlds. Child therapy, provided by a mental health clinician, can help the child accumulate coping strategies that can enhance their wellbeing for life. Our therapists believe it’s a privilege to understand the inner worlds of the children we work with and we strive to incorporate all aspects of wellbeing into their treatment.
Common problems we address in child therapy:
Preschoolers and Early Years
Our clinicians provide parenting consultation around common struggles in preschool and kindergarten-aged children. Through a psychosocial assessment, our clinician can make recommendations around a behavioural approach to helping your little one thrive. This may include improving consistency, routines, working towards a rewards-based behavior plan as opposed to overusing punishment-based approaches, increasing validation-based techniques and improving co-parenting. Emphasis is put on increasing self-regulation.
Rigidity
Social anxiety
Low mood or depression
Poor self-regulation
Low self-esteem
Bullying
Trauma
Self-harm / suicidal ideation
Low-frustration tolerance
Physical aggression
Isolating / Avoidance
Family conflict
Video-game addiction
Substance use
ADHD, difficulty focusing
Perfectionism
OCD
Cluster B (Borderline traits)
Common problems we address:
Poor social skills
Low frustration tolerance
Separation Anxiety
Shyness
Tantrums/Meltdowns
Poor Eating
Sleep issues
Hitting/Biting
Anxiety Therapy for Children
One of the most pressing and common mental health struggles for children is anxiety. Anxiety can present itself as chronic stomach aches, anger outbursts, difficulty separating from parents, difficulty sleeping, and much more. As loving parents, we tend to swoop in and try to make our children feel better when they are having an anxious moment, however, it might be the case that we actually accommodate the anxiety (inadvertently reinforce it) because we encourage avoidance. Children in anxiety treatment learn to tackle their worries and fears by learning more helpful thinking patterns and then gradually facing their fears with their new coping strategies. As therapists, we find it best when parents are involved in anxiety therapy to help learn how to encourage brave behaviours at home as well.
Our Child Therapy Services:
Brookhaven therapists are highly trained in working with children, holding positions on Child/Adolescent mental health units in GTA hospital settings and as mental health workers for the school board. Traditional cognitive behavioural and dialectical behavioural therapy modalities are adapted to be user friendly for younger age groups. Our therapists believe that it is of the utmost importance that your child feel safe and secure during the process of therapy, and therefore the child/therapist relationship is held centre to our approach. Often times, it is helpful to have the parents join sessions for psycho-education, reinforcing the use of skills between sessions, and discharge planning.
Some of our Child Therapists
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Emma Ganton
Registered Social Worker / Psychotherapist
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Chrissy McLean
Registered Social Worker / Psychotherapist
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Reanne Burgess
Registered Social Worker / Psychotherapist
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Tessa Zadorsky
Registered Social Worker / Psychotherapist
Start Child Therapy with us Today!
Check out these resources:
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The Power of Validation
Child/youth not coming to you with problems? Try this.
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Why Kids with ADHD Fib More
Children and youth with ADHD may fib more than others. Here’s a look at why this happens and what you can do about it.
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Social Anxiety: More than Just Shyness
Many parents shrug social anxiety off as their child ‘just being shy’. Here is why this may be problematic.