Is Your Child Struggling At Home Or At School?

Does your child or adolescent struggle with anxiety or behavioral issues? Are they having difficulty making friends or keeping up at school? Perhaps they have a hard time coping with challenges or processing difficult emotions. Or maybe your child is constantly worried, and the inability to find relief is negatively impacting school performance, friendships, and self-esteem. You may have tried to ask how they are feeling and how you can help, but they seem either unwilling or unable to explain it well. 

At home, your child’s difficulty regulating emotions and communicating their needs may be starting to impact your family life. Maybe your child always seems upset and doesn’t want to do anything—even activities you know they enjoy. Or they might argue and throw tantrums more frequently than they used to, and you may not be able to remember the last time you went out as a family and didn’t end up feeling embarrassed or exhausted. 

In light of these challenges, you may understand that your family needs a little help getting back on track, but you aren’t sure where to start. Do you wish you knew how to give your child the support, guidance, and accountability they need to thrive and feel happy?

Emotion Regulation, Learning And Social Problems Are Common In Children And Adolescents

It can be difficult to watch your child struggle when you know they are intelligent and capable of so much. But it’s important that you don’t blame yourself. Many children struggle in the same manner your child is struggling—whether it’s due to an anxiety or mood problem, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), a recent trauma, a learning disability, or something else entirely.

The adolescent phase, in particular, is challenging for even the brightest and most confident of children. Social pressure, academic expectations, increasing responsibilities at home, and changing hormones can all affect their ability to focus in school or to make friends.

Fortunately, evidence-based therapeutic strategies can help your child and your family understand and address the difficulties that are keeping your child from living their best life. Through sessions with an experienced child/adolescent psychologist, your child will learn strategies to regulate their emotions, cope with difficult situations, make friends, and be more successful in school. And, just as important, you will learn strategies to provide your child the support and guidance they need to thrive.

Behavior Therapy And Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Guide Our Practice

Even though things are difficult now, there are specific, empirically-supported approaches that can improve your child’s functioning. In our practice, we make heavy use of Behavior Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). Our approach is solution-oriented, and that means we help you and your child gain the understanding, encouragement, and clear plan of action you need to alter or change harmful behavior patterns.

At the beginning of our work together, we take the time to get to know your child and understand their unique situation. This allows us to develop personalized treatment goals and identify scientifically-validated treatment options that will best aid your child and family. We also track treatment goals throughout our work together so you and your child can see the progress we’re making each session.  

Research guides our therapeutic techniques because we want to offer proven services, techniques, and skills that will work for each client’s unique needs and goals. Behavior Therapy and CBT have been extensively studied and shown to help clients who have experienced depression, anxiety, PTSD, OCD, and behavioral issues. Depending on your child or adolescent’s situation, we may select a specific treatment model, such as Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), or Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT).

At the Caring Cove, we specialize in treating a wide range of issues, and we have personally seen the benefits of therapy in our young clients, regardless of how long or how severely they have been struggling.

If your child or adolescent is struggling with the following challenges, we can help.

parent and child sunset child therapy

  • Anxiety
  • Adjustment following adoption
  • Depression
  • Difficulties related to trauma (e.g. abuse history, death of a caregiver, divorce)
  • Emotion Regulation Difficulties
  • Learning disabilities
  • Mood Difficulties
  • Oppositional and behavioral difficulties in children ages 3-7
  • Selective Mutism
  • Social difficulties

Our child/adolescent psychologists work with patience, compassion, and empathy to form a connection and build trust with your child. It has been our experience that children enjoy coming to our office and parents rarely have difficulties getting them to attend after the first visit. Even if there are initial hurdles to overcome, we work patiently, with compassion and empathy, to form a connection and give your child the ongoing guidance, support, and acceptance they need to thrive.

You May Have Some Concerns About Child/Adolescent Services…

mom smiling at child child therapy

We’ve tried everything, and nothing has worked.

We completely understand how frustrating it can be when a service promises to help your child but doesn’t make a difference. What separates our practice from others is that we use empirically supported approaches that have been proven to work. We continuously track the success of our treatment approaches and modify each child’s treatment plan to best suit their specific challenges, goals, and needs.  Your child isn’t the first we’ve treated with these challenges, and we are well equipped to help. 

Do I just drop off my child at therapy?

Your participation can be an important catalyst for change to occur, and it’s in the best interest of your child for you to be part of the sessions. You are the expert on your child, and your insight can help us better understand their behavior. In addition to helping your child, we will take time during sessions to teach you how to support your child outside of sessions. You can learn and practice skills in therapy that you can apply at home and in school. In time, you will have all the tools you need to help your child when they encounter problems, and you can stop therapy with the confidence that you and your child are better prepared to handle life’s challenges and changes.

Is child/adolescent therapy expensive?

Think of therapy as an investment in your child’s future. The skills they learn in sessions with a child/adolescent psychologist will help them thrive for years to come. Since the approaches used at Caring Cove are evidence-based, they are also time-limited. This means that you will know the approximate amount of sessions needed to address goals after the intake, progress will be monitored, and therapy will not continue indefinitely.  

If you would like to use insurance, you should call your insurance company to see what part of the expenses they may cover. While Caring Cove does not accept insurance, we can provide you with a superbill to submit to your insurance company for reimbursement. And we are happy to help you navigate the process for submitting claims to your insurance.    

Schedule Your Appointment With A Child/Adolescent Psychologist

If you are ready to give child/adolescent services a try, we invite you to call our center at (973) 370-9944 for a free 15-minute consultation to see if we are a good fit for working together. We look forward to hearing from you.