It is understandable for parents to feel mixed emotions when seeking a consultation about their child. It is important to keep in mind that child psychologists are familiar with children facing a range of challenges and understand that these experiences can evoke strong feelings within the family. Seeking treatment can be a powerful aide in understanding your child's difficulties and in gaining substantial relief from the problems that interfere with your child's overall happiness and comfort, bringing about a greater degree of effectiveness in meeting developmental, social and emotional challenges and daily events with a greater degree of ease and success.

Children often struggle with feelings of insecurity, worries and frustration, similar to teens and adults. Many children face difficulties in managing common childhood experiences including sibling rivalry and separation anxiety as well as coping with adjustments to a new school, a family move, the birth of a silbing, medical conditions and proceedures and to parental separation and divorce. If you are considering seeking psychotherapy for your child, you may have concerns about certain aspects of your child's development or your child's ability to comfortably manage daily routines and social or school life. You may have noticed that your child seems overwhelmed or burderned by feelings of anxiety, anger or sadness. A consultation with a child psychologist can offer help in finding new and improved ways to manage these challenges and in helping your child overcome the emotional and social difficulties that get in the way of living life to the fullest. Meeting with a child therapist also provides parents with a greater understanding about the expectable social and emotional experiences at various developmental stages.

Play is a child's most powerful resource through which to identify, express, and successfully manage many areas of social and emotional development. Play therapy with a child psychologist provides a young child with the opportunity to gain support and to develop greater effectiveness in overcoming social and emotional challenges. Parents have a vital role in a child's treatment and can develop enhanced understanding into the nature of a child's concerns and effective responses and strategies, tailored specifically to meet the child's emotional needs, developmental stage and family style.

Some of the reasons parents seek psychotherapy for their child include:

• difficulty managing daily routines
• anxiety and nervousness
• fears and worries
• sadness and tearfulness
• difficulty with adjustment to school
• separation anxiety
• sibling relationship difficulties
• difficulties with peers and within friendships
• concerns about socialization
• obsessive behaviors
• changes in the child's typical personality
• coping with major life changes (i.e., the birth of a sibling or a family move)
• managing typical, challenging life events (i.e., going to the doctor or dentist)
• coping with loss and grief
• developmental concerns

Please feel free to call me (301) 922-1114 to talk further about your questions and concerns, and how I might be able to help you and your child to overcome the social or emotional struggles that may be interfereing with social, school, and/or family life.

Teens lead complex lives in facing the demands of academic, social and family life. Teens today experience an increasingly complex and often stressful world that can be both enhanced as well as complicated by social media and 24/7 digital information. Many teens find it helpful to have the opportunity to express the concerns they are facing. Often, teenagers wish to discuss experiences related to academic pressures, struggles with self-esteem, anxiety and self-doubts and challenges within relationships with family, friends and significant others. Speaking with a therapist in a neutral and confidential setting can help teens to clarify their thoughts and ideas, and often improves their capacity to communicate with family and friends. Therapy for teens can help to promote adaptive coping skills, reduced anxiety and improved commuication and relationships with family and peers.

A goal of treatment often includes helping to establish a more comfortable relationship with parents, while also maintaining a confidential place to address personal concerns. I offer brief, short-term treatment for those wishing to address specific goals, as well as longer-term therapy for those who find it useful to gain greater understanding of, and enhanced solutions to, troubles related to relationships and self-esteem and in managing anxiety and depression.

Many teenagers find psychotherapy helpful to address:

• anxiety and stress management
• academic concerns
• self-doubt and self-criticism
• depression and sadness
• difficulties within personal relationships
• identity concerns
• managing family relationships and transitions
• decision-making related to future plans and goals
• adjustment to the loss of a loved one
• binge eating disorder

Please feel free to contact me to discuss any questions or concerns you have about whether therapy may be beneficial for your teen.