Child Therapy For Anxiety
At BPC, our skilled child therapists are trained in a variety of treatment approaches that have proven effective anxiety treatment. Because we specialize in working with children as young as preschool, we have become really good at helping children.
Child Therapy for Anxiety
Maybe your child has always been anxious, but now their worries seem to be intensifying. Getting ready for school is becoming more difficult. There always seems to be something at school that your child feels nervous or anxious about about. Maybe your child tends to be a perfectionist. They are unable to cope with they do not get things “just right.” Your child is constantly seeking reassurance and rely on approval of others. As a a parent, this can become quite exhausting. Anxiety can even cause physical symptoms. Your child may be experiencing more physical pain, such as stomach aches and headaches.
At BPC, our skilled child therapists are trained a variety of treatment approaches proven effective anxiety treatment. Because we specialize in working with children as young as preschool, we have become really good at helping children. Anxiety is a common problems for children, but it’s something we help children overcome every day.
What is Anxiety and How is it Impacting your Child?
Anxiety is a powerful emotion that can evoke all sorts of responses. The body sends a signal to the brain and the brain’s response is to scream: “You are in danger!” This fight or flight mechanism helped us immensely during our caveman days, when we needed these signals to survive an attack from a wild animal. But in most situations these days, this response is a false alarm. Even though it’s a false alarm, this fear can feel very real! Heart racing, shortness of breath, trembling in arms and legs, tingling in fingers are just a few examples of what can happen when anxiety takes over. These reactions – in and of themselves – can be so scary to children that they actually increase the anxiety, making it debilitating.
What’s more, often times the anxiety cannot be explained or rationalized away. Our instinct is to tell children:
“You’ll be okay. It’s just a short book report. Everyone has to do it.”
“There is nothing to worry about – Mommy will never forget to pick you up from school.”
“We are not going to get into a car accident! I will even drive extra carefully so you won’t have to worry.”
”Just relax. You will be okay.”
These statements are really well intended. You are trying to help your children, but it just seems to make their anxiety worse. The unfortunately truth is that for kids who really struggle with anxiety, these explanations are just not enough. Regardless of what “fact” we see as adults, their worries and fear seem very real to your child. Telling themselves to relax or that their fears probably won’t happen might not make them feel much better.
Help for Children with Anxiety
Fortunately, there is help for anxious children. Children have the ability to gain an awareness of their feelings and become empowered to gain control over this powerful emotion. The counselors at BPC are experts at providing mental health services for children.
As a Houston child and family therapy clinic, BPC uses a blend of play therapy, mindfulness practices, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) techniques, and innovative “brain-based” strategies coming from the latest in neuroscience. Parent-Child Interaction Therapy and Theraplay techniques are also sometimes indicated for children with anxiety.
How Child Counseling for Anxiety Can Help Your Family
How Counseling Helps Your Child
- Reduce nervous feelings
- Learn tools to “boss back” their anxious thoughts
- Gain confidence in social situations
- Learn relaxation tools
- Improve sleep habitats and transitions
How Counseling Helps the Parents
Parent and family counseling sessions will give you resources and tools to help your child take control of the anxiety. Your child’s therapist will give you phrases to use for those times when you just don’t know what to say. As a parent, you will be supported and provided all the tools you need to help your child in all the ways you want to. Parent counseling sessions and anxiety treatment for your child can help your home become a peaceful, happy place again.
Your Child will Benefit from Child Therapy for Anxiety at our office if your child has:
- Excessive anxiety and worry
- Inability to control fears and worries
- Difficulty sleeping due to anxious thoughts
- Physical symptoms such as stomach aches and headaches
- Extreme fears in social situations
- Perfectionistic tendencies and performance anxiety
- Difficulty separating from caregivers
- Irrational thoughts about something happening to primary caregivers
Families who may not be ready for child anxiety counseling at BPC include, but are not limited to, parents who:
- Do not want to engage in the therapeutic process
- Want a “quick fix”
- View their child as the problem
- Are not able to commit to 6-12 months of care
- Want a therapist to “fix” their child