- Is your child acting out at home, school, or in daily routines?
- Have anger, tantrums, withdrawal, clinginess, or disruptive behaviors become more frequent?
- Are changes such as divorce, moving, loss, bullying, or a new school affecting your child’s emotions or behavior?
- Do you feel unsure whether your child is struggling with sadness, anxiety, fear, or frustration?
- Are you worried there may be something deeper your child cannot yet explain in words?
Child Counseling in West Hartford & Milford
Is Your Child Acting Unlike Themselves?
Children Often Show Distress Through Behavior
Children are in an almost constant state of change. This can be stressful and cause them to behave in ways that are worrisome, particularly as they experience changes in their bodies, confront emotions they don’t know how to handle, or are challenged by new experiences that they are unfamiliar with.
How Life Events and Stress Impact Children
On the other hand, it’s important to consider that a child’s struggles are not always on the inside. Children’s intense emotions are sometimes triggered by outside situations. For instance, your child may have recently experienced some radical change or trauma. Moving, divorce, changing schools, the death of a pet or loved one, bullying are all circumstances that can be emotionally trying and cause changes in a child’s behavior.
Children don’t have the same understanding or capacity to easily talk about their emotions as adults and sometimes, when they are experiencing intense emotions, things can sometimes come out a little ‘sideways’. When we think of sadness or depression, most of us have a pretty clear idea about what that should look like. Children often express sadness, grief or depression as anger or frustration. This misplacement of emotion is also true of anxiety or fear, when it comes to children. An anxious or fearful child may appear to be clingy, when, in fact, he or she is withdrawing or hiding.
Benefits of Child Counseling
- A safe, supportive space for your child to express thoughts and feelings
- Help understanding behaviors that may be connected to sadness, anxiety, fear, grief, or frustration
- Support adjusting to life changes such as divorce, moving, loss, bullying, or school transitions
- Healthier coping skills for intense emotions, stress, and daily challenges
- Improved communication between children, parents, caregivers, and family members
- Greater confidence for parents in understanding and supporting their child’s needs
- Support building social skills, emotional awareness, and resilience
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Recognizing When Your Child May Need Support
A parent’s concern is often the first sign that a child needs some extra support.
A child’s limited range of expressing emotion also interferes with his or her ability to adequately or accurately articulate what he or she is thinking and feeling. If you feel that your child is acting out of character, it’s likely there’s a deeper reason he or she is unable to share with you. It may also be an indication that it’s time to seek out the support of a counselor experienced in working with children.
How Play and Art Therapy Help Children Heal
Children best express themselves through play and art because it’s the way they interpret the world and express their experience. Play and art therapy can help your child better understand what he or she is feeling, adjust to life’s major changes, like moving, divorce or loss, learn positive social skills and increase healthy coping.
Frequently Asked Questions About Child Counseling
Child counseling may be helpful if your child is acting out, withdrawing, struggling at school, having frequent tantrums, showing intense emotions, or behaving in ways that feel out of character. A parent’s concern is often an important sign that a child may need extra support.
Children often do not have the same ability as adults to explain what they are thinking or feeling. Counseling gives children developmentally appropriate ways to express themselves, often through play, art, and supportive conversation.
Child counseling can help with emotional and behavioral changes related to anxiety, sadness, anger, grief, divorce, moving, bullying, school stress, trauma, or family changes. Therapy can also support children who are struggling with social skills, coping, or communication.
Play and art allow children to express experiences and emotions they may not yet be able to put into words. These approaches can help children process change, understand feelings, build coping skills, and feel more secure.
Hi, I’m Shelly
Care Coordinator and Practice Administrator
I’m happy to answer your questions and connect you with the best therapist for you. The easiest way to get started is to call for a free consultation. I look forward to assisting you!
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You Can Find Relief And Healing
Please contact our office for a free 15-minute phone consultation. We look forward to discussing your unique needs and answering any questions you have about child counseling.
In addition to being a private pay practice, we take Anthem Blue Cross, Aetna, Husky, Optum, United, Medicare and Medicaid insurances.
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