How can therapy help my child?      

Children's social, physical and educational development can be severely affected by emotional problems.

These may include:

 

Anger and aggression, anxiety and worries, persistent sadness, slow confidence, difficulties in friendships and family relationships , overcoming being withdrawn, mental health illnesses including OCD, PTSD and Depression, ASD including Autism, ADHD. etc.

 

Difficulties may be triggered by events such as family conflict, parental separation, family separation, bereavement, bullying at school, or the effects of trauma, abuse and neglect - or there may be no clear 'reason' for the problem.

 

Art and Play therapy for children can provide kids with an easier way to express themselves since children are more naturally artistic and creative. A young child is likely more comfortable initially expressing himself with some crayons and markers, for example, than he is going to be at expressing emotions and feelings through words.

   

A question and answer type of therapy can be daunting and intimidating for a child especially when they have to try and explain themselves with their already limited vocabulary.  

 

When a child suffers trauma - be it physical, emotional, sexual or otherwise - his or her whole existence, his Self, is threatened. The impact of trauma is such that the mind becomes unable to keep the natural impulses under control. The fear of loss of Self as a result of trauma may be so great that the body reacts in the only way it knows how; it has to either fight or flee to survive the attack. In doing either, the running or the fighting- the child’s suffering is greater if the child feels alone.

 

To undo the effect of the traumatic event the child, or anyone of any age for that matter, needs to recount what happened. The telling of the story does not have to be literal and in actual details. Especially in the case of children, this takes on a symbolic expression. In the telling of the story, the child relates to others (parents or parental figures) and finds him or herself not alone - he or she is both connected and accepted. In other words, loved. If the caring adults fail to provide the traumatised child with an opportunity to do so, the  internal cycle of frightful running and hiding, feeling helpless to fight back, feeling guilty for having survived, feeling ashamed and dirty for having to suffer the experience, feeling hopeless of getting better and feeling angry for being this way - may well continue.

 

To tell the story the child needs a language. Trauma takes the words away. When a child is in severe pain we expect to see tears and to hear screams. How can we expect clear descriptions and reasonable explanations when the child is in severe psychological pain?