Child and Adolescent Therapy


Information for Parents and Carers

 

As a parent, you strive to help your child to reach their full potential. Sometimes, it can be difficult to know how best to do this, particularly if your child is having difficulty managing their emotions.

Using a collaborative approach, we work with you and your child to help your family to learn improved ways of relating. While your child will be the main focus of therapy, we aim to involve you from the outset as an integral part of improving your child's wellbeing. This makes you a partner in the process, keeping you informed about your child's progress.

 

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If you have noticed the following issues with your child, counselling with a child psychologist may be helpful:

  • Defiance, tantrums, or oppositional behaviour
  • Mood changes, such as crying more, appearing sad, or worrying excessively
  • Anxiety about separating from you, or "clingy" behaviour
  • Difficulty adjusting to changes, such as parents separating or loss of loved ones
  • Refusing to go to school
  • Changes in sleeping or eating patterns
  • Risk-taking behaviour
  • Self-harm
  • Being bullied
  • Difficulty connecting with peers
  • Decline in performance at school

 

How therapy can help your child:

 

Therapy can help children and adolescents with a range of issues, including difficulties with peers, managing emotions, coping with parental separation, anxiety, depression, behaviour problems, and overcoming negative experiences.

We have worked extensively with children and adolescents experiencing these issues, along with children who have experienced abuse, neglect or other traumatic events.

The earlier you seek help for your child, the easier it will be for them to make gains in treatment.

If an issue appears to be distressing your child or having an impact on how they relate to others in the family, we encourage you to give us a call.

 

Contact us for further information about how we can help you, or request an appointment.

 

Issues treated include:

  • Depression
  • Anxiety
  • Behaviour problems
  • Nightmares
  • Parenting difficulties
  • Establishing routines
  • Attachment issues
  • School issues
  • Trauma and impact of abuse

 

  • Grief and loss
  • Impact of parental separation
  • Life stresses
  • Sleep problems
  • Self-esteem
  • Separation anxiety
  • Anger management
  • Bullying
  • Peer/social difficulties

 

 
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First Session Information for Parents and Carers

If you are a parent or carer referring your child for counselling, it is important that your psychologist has the opportunity to meet with you alone prior to working with your child. This allows for the psychologist to take a thorough history and means you can speak openly about issues affecting your child. As such, the psychologist will either see you separately for  the first session, or will spend some time with you alone while  your child is otherwise occupied.

If you choose to attend the first session alone, which is our preferred option, please note that you will not be able to claim a Medicare rebate, as Medicare rebates for child therapy are only payable when the child is present. If you have private health insurance that covers psychology services, you can use this to claim a rebate for the first session.

We feel that attending the first session without your child present is a helpful way for you to determine whether the psychologist is a good match for your child, and to work out plans for your child's treatment.

 

Concerned about your own relationship?

Sometimes when parents are having difficulties in their own relationship, they can be more concerned about how their children are coping with this than about their own wellbeing. If this sounds like you, you may want to consider couple therapy or couple workshops to help your relationship. While it can be very difficult to put your relationship first, consider that working on your own relationship can help you to parent your child more effectively, as you may be happier and more able to parent as a team.