Child psychotherapy is aimed at achieving psychoemotional well-being in children. Childhood is a particularly sensitive and important stage in our personal development, children are vulnerable and dependent on the adults around them, so we must pay attention to their emotional health.
Detecting possible problems and treating them at an early age will help them to prevent problems in their adult life, as well as guaranteeing their well-being during childhood.
When is it done?
Just like adults, children can present mental health problems, such as anxiety, depression, eating disorders, attention deficit or hyperactivity disorder and conduct disorders, among others.
What we do find is that, on many occasions, children do not express the same symptoms as adults, for example, many times in childhood depression we can observe more symptoms of irritability than of sadness and this sometimes makes it difficult for parents to realize the presence of a problem.
Childhood is a stage of changes, that is why the role of the parents or main caregivers will be decisive when observing difficulties in the child. Many times it is the children who express the discomfort, but, on other occasions, it is the adults of reference who feel that something is not going well. In both cases, seeing a specialist in psychology will be important to evaluate the presence of a problem and, if there is one, to implement the appropriate treatment to help the child.
What is the procedure?
When considering child psychotherapy, the first thing to do is to determine the therapeutic objective to be achieved. To do this, a psychosocial evaluation of the child will be carried out, which will be important to do from the contexts in which he/she moves, to observe and determine how the problem functions in these contexts.
In addition to the child’s own evaluation, interviews will be conducted with family members and, if necessary, the child’s symptoms in the educational environment will also be evaluated. Therefore, the intervention in child psychotherapy will have several branches. We will work with the child him/herself, with his/her family and also, if necessary, with the school.
The objective is to create a safe environment from where the child can face his/her problem and learn different strategies to cope with it. The work with the family and the educational environment will be vital to reinforce everything worked on in the sessions with the child, as well as to help him/her to continue achieving his/her goals.
Psychotherapy sessions with children are adapted to the age of the child, being necessary in the case of younger children to connect with their problems in a way that is accessible to them. Through play, children are better able to connect with what is happening to them, for which they do not always have words, and from there to generate different skills that they can then implement in their daily lives.
How does it help the children and the parents?
When a child suffers generally the adults of reference for that child also suffer. Many times we do not know how to help them to be well and, on many other occasions, the strategies we put in place to help the child end up making the problem worse.
Childhood is a particularly vulnerable stage. A problem at this stage will have much more impact on the child’s life than it would have if the problem appears in adulthood. If the child feels that he/she does not have the capacity to manage the problem, this will negatively affect his/her self-esteem and security, generating difficulties in other areas of his/her life.
Going to therapy will help us to understand how the problem is working and what we can do to solve it. It will provide the child with tools adapted to his/her age to face his/her problem, which will make him/her gain much more confidence and security in him/herself and in his/her abilities, facing more successfully problems that may arise in the future.
From the consultation, I have seen how parents come overwhelmed by not knowing what to do to help their son or daughter. Many times, when they come, the problem already affects the whole family and they feel frustrated and unable to solve it. This, in turn, worsens the family environment, making the problem worse in turn, like an infinite loop.
From child psychotherapy we also provide parents with tools to understand and know how to act in the face of their child’s problem, generating greater security and tranquility, making family dynamics much more positive and healthy for all members.