Children’s Therapy in Midland, MI

Therapy for Children

As parents, we often wish we could protect our children from anything traumatic. The unfortunate reality is that we live in a world where children are often exposed to loss, hardship, abuse, and sadness. How do we help them to cope when life feels overwhelming?

Many children cope with emotional pain through behaviors such as tantrums, defiance, and/or withdrawal and isolation. Helping children heal involves time and patience on the part of both the parent and the therapist, and children’s therapy can look very different from adult therapy.

It often takes a therapist numerous sessions to simply gain the trust of a child. While it may seem to the outside eye that no “work” has been done, trust building is a huge part of the therapy process. If the therapeutic environment does not feel safe to a child, no real gains can be made.

In addition, the therapist often spends time working with parents, helping them to incorporate skills to build closer relationships with their children.

Play Therapy

Mental health treatment also involves understanding the developmental differences between children and adults. While adults generally organize their experiences through words, children tend to process their experiences through play. This is why play therapy is a mainstay for effective counseling. The therapist helps the child to build connection, work out problems, and build a sense of safety through play.

EMDR

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a therapy often utilized to treat adults with PTSD and anxiety. However, with adjustments for developmental differences, EMDR can be an effective tool for children. EMDR utilizes bilateral stimulation in the form of eye movement, tapping, or music to help the brain to process traumatic events (See the video under EMDR therapy on this website). EMDR helps the brain to release trauma and bring understanding and closure to the experience.