Child & Adolescent Therapy

The Medical Psychology Center treats children and adolescents of all ages, ranging from preschoolers to older teens transitioning to college or work life after high school. All therapists working with children and adolescents have specialized masters or doctoral level training which have provided them with the unique set of skills required to work with this population.

What is it?

Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy refers to a variety of techniques and methods used to help children and adolescents who are experiencing difficulties with their emotions or behavior. Although there are different types of psychotherapy, each relies on communications as the basic tool for bringing about change in a person's feelings and behaviors. Psychotherapy may involve an individual child, a family, or a parent-child dyad. In children and adolescents, playing, drawing, creating, and pretending, as well as traditional talking, are important ways of sharing feelings and resolving problems. At times, parents may work with a therapist directly rather than having the child engaged in therapy in order to develop special parenting techniques.

Issues Addressed

Children and adolescents may benefit from therapy for emotional issues such as depression, generalized anxiety, or school-related anxiety.  For others, the main issues may be behavioral in nature such as oppositionality, defiance. or aggression.  At other times, parents may seek treatment for their children because of functional issues such as poor school performance or ongoing peer relationship problems. Alternatively, children and adolescents may sometimes need psychological care to help them cope with a major stressor such as a parent's illness or a change in family structure (e.g., divorce or remarriage).