When your child struggles with anxiety or depression, you feel like you do not know what to do. Finding a professional to help you know how to help your child, and understand what is happening, is the right thing to do.
Are you concerned about your child’s emotional well-being or development? Is their behavior dominating your family or your daily life? Has your child experienced a traumatic event that is difficult to understand or handle? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you or your child or family may benefit from counseling. Counseling with a specialized professional can put you onto the path of healing and wellness, overcoming anxiety, depression and emotional issues. Embark Counseling has expert counselors who provide counseling for child depression and anxiety.
When a child in the family is struggling, the whole family struggles.
A child’s behaviors tell a story. Sometimes, we do not fully understand the story they are telling, and we are left to make assumptions about their thoughts and behaviors, when children want to be heard and understood. Our child therapists are experienced and have specialized training to help your child overcome anxiety, depression and other emotional issues that cause distress.
Anxiety
Anxiety looks very mysterious in children. Your child may complain of stomach aches, headaches, or refuse to eat or go places. Your child may have trouble sleeping, have nightmares and be afraid to separate from parents, whether at school, church or on play dates. Your child may even throw excessive temper tantrums, disrupt class at school and possibly even throw objects and hit others. Your child needs a lot of reassurance, and the energy this takes from you, as the parent/guardian, exhausts you. You just want your child to be okay, and to feel better.
Anxiety is often not recognized due to the nature of the psychological response: fight, flight or flee. Oftentimes, the way anxiety shows up in children looks like ADHD or oppositional behavior. Our clinicians are specifically trained to identify the key components of anxiety, as well as traumatic responses from distressing events, to appropriately treat and help your child learn ways to handle not only their anxiety, but approach scary and unsure events with confidence.
Depression
Depression looks very different in children than it does in adults. The symptoms can have a big impact on your child functions at home, following through with tasks, interacting with friends and how your child gets along with others at home. Not all of the following symptoms need to be present for your child to be depressed, although, any of these symptoms can indicate that your child will benefit from the help of a child counselor.
- Irritability, anger, or being “on edge”
- Persistent feelings of sadness, hopelessness
- Changes in Academic Performance
- Withdrawal from previously enjoyed activities as well as from friends and family
- Increased sensitivity to rejection or criticism
- Changes in appetite (either increased or decreased)
- Changes in sleep (sleeplessness or too much sleep)
- Crying or temper tantrums
- Difficulty concentrating and focusing
- Fatigue (tiredness) and low energy
- Physical complaints (such as stomach aches, headaches) that do not respond to treatment
- Reduced ability to function during activities at home or with friends, in school, extracurricular activities, and in other hobbies or interests
- Feelings of worthlessness or guilt
- Thoughts or talk of death or suicide
Other behavioral issues that counseling helps:
- Mood disorders (bipolar, disruptive mood dysregulation)
- OCD (angry/aggressive, moral/persecutory, classic)
- Autism
- School Refusal
- Oppositional or Conduct problems
Most children experience symptoms of anxiety or depression, and often result in big expressions that are distruptive, including physical or verbal aggression. Through the counseling experience, your child will identify situations that cause the problems, learn ways to calm and cope, and ultimately learn how to manage experiences so that they are in charge of their world and behaviors. Our skilled and trained counselors are experts in various disorders, including generalized anxiety, social anxiety, school refusal, depression, autism, OCD and behaviors that appear oppositional. Connect with us today to discover how our counseling can help your child, and ultimately, your family feel better, and overcome child depression and anxiety.
Our child counselors:
Samantha Trujillo, LMSW
Kaitlyn Sampson, MA, PLPC