There is a saying:
“It takes a village to raise a child.”
Bring Balance to Your Life
Therapy for children 12-18 in NYS
Get accessible and personalized mental health therapy in-person or in a virtual format from the comfort of your home.
Your child may face challenges
Switching schools,
Starting Middle School,
Starting High School,
Starting College.
As a parent, you may need help with the following issues:
Teaching your child to be more independent
Helping your child to be motivated when starting a new school
Helping your child to develop more resilience
Encouraging your child to socialize with peers
Dealing with bullies at school
Providing support and guidance during adolescence
Dealing with depression and anxiety
Dealing with challenges presented by social media and the internet
Dealing with busy schedules and pressure to succeed
Seek help if your child
Has lost interest in things that they used to enjoy
Has low energy
Sleeps too much or too little or seems sleepy throughout the day
Spends more and more time alone and avoids social activities with friends or family
Diets or exercises excessively, or fears gaining weight
Engages in self-harm behaviors (such as cutting or burning their skin)
Engages in risky behaviors
Has thoughts of suicide
Has periods of highly elevated energy and activity and requires much less sleep than usual
We will collaborate to work on:
Exploring the roots of the problems
Identifying and challenging unhelpful negative and/or anxious thoughts
Increasing emotional regulation and distress tolerance
Reducing stress
Increasing confidence in your child’s decision-making
Improving communications and boundaries with peers and adults
Therapy can help to:
Improve self-esteem
Learn problem-solving tools
Learn to better manage stress and prioritize self-care
Release stress and tension from the body
Improve body image
Calm mental and emotional overload
Improve interactions with family and peers
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that as many as 1 in 5 children and adolescents in the United States have a mental, behavioral, or emotional disorder, but only about 20% of this population ever receives care from a specialized mental health provider.
FAQs
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Children and adolescents are part of a family system. Very often, they become an identified client. When there is a problem in a family, children act out. The parents need to understand that a child can’t be magically fixed in therapy if the parents don’t work on their own problems. There is a saying: “It takes a village to raise a child.” Treating a child/adolescent takes a collaborative approach.
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In order to answer this question we need to look at three different perspectives: the law, the clinical treatment, and the ethics.
A complicated set of federal and state laws, professional ethics, and statutory interpretations by various courts govern minors’ (below 18) right to confidentiality in treatment.
When a minor has the legal ability and consents to care, all services provided must remain confidential and cannot be released to third parties including parents and law enforcement.
However, the majority of minors do not have the legal ability to consent to care. Legally speaking, people under the age of 18 do not typically have a right to confidentiality in therapy.
Laws in all 50 states require a therapist to contact authorities if a patient is a danger to themselves, to others, and/or if the therapist suspects that a known child is being abused.
However, this does not necessarily mean that we shouldn’t grant children confidentiality.
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Confidentiality increases cooperation in treatment. It insures that the child gets an effective treatment. It creates a sense of autonomy and respect for privacy which is important for adolescence’s growing needs. It protects the child from the risk of abuse. It creates a protection from third parties. It can improve child-parent relationship.
It is necessary to discuss the confidentiality rules with both a parent and a child at the beginning of therapy. Usually a confidentiality contract is signed.
However, confidentiality doesn’t exclude contacting a parent to collaborate in their child’s treatment as long as the therapists makes it clear to the child what is going to be discussed with the parent and asks the child for his or her consent.
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Contact me and we will discuss your particular case.