Family Counseling McLean VA
Family counseling in McLean VA can be a beneficial and healthy option for your children if they are struggling post-divorce. It can take some time before your child gets used to a new way of living, but sometimes children need a little extra help with such a big life change. In this article, we have listed signs that could mean your child needs to see a therapist. Additionally, we have defined the various approaches a therapist may use during a family counseling session with your child.
Signs and Symptoms
As a parent, you and your former spouse know your children best. Even if they do not have any of the below symptoms, but are otherwise not acting like their normal self, it may still be time to consider family counseling.
- Issues with eating
- Insomnia
- Sleeping too much
- Head or stomach aches with no resolution
- Constantly feeling sad or melancholy
- Disinterest in seeing friends
- Frequently irritated or frustrated
- Poor school performance
- Decrease in self-confidence
- Acting out at home or in public
- Aggression
- Difficulties concentrating
- Fatigue or excessive tiredness
- Family members are concerned about child’s well being
Common Family Counseling Methods
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): Helping improve a child’s behavior, anxiety, and moods by identifying unhelpful ways of thinking. A therapist can help teach your children that their thoughts can contribute to their moods, which may influence behavior. A child can learn to replace harmful thought habits with more appropriate ones, which then can result in more positive behaviors.
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT): Emphasizes the children taking ownership of their difficulties and helps them identify how they may deal with conflict or negative feelings.
- Family Therapy: Focus on family function by encouraging a development of effective communication in addition to support and awareness. Family therapy includes the child, parents, grandparents, and siblings.
- Group Therapy: A group of multiple children is led by one therapist, using the power of group dynamics and interactions with others, to increase a sense of their mental state or enhance social skills.
- Interpersonal Therapy (IPT): Focuses on how a child’s emotional state can be affected by interpersonal events and troublesome relationships are examined.
- Play Therapy: A therapist uses dolls, toys, blocks, drawings, games, or puppets to assist the child in expressing his or her feelings. The therapist can then observe how the child uses these toys to help identify and understand behavioral patterns. Through playing and communication, the child is given a space to manage their feelings and subsequent behavior.
- Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: Identifying and understanding the problems which influence a child’s feelings, thoughts, and behaviors.
The Goal of a McLean VA Therapist
The motivation of a therapist is to provide a safe space where children and parents alike feel comfortable to express their true feelings and thoughts. Talk with your former spouse about whether family counseling McLean VA families recommend for your child is an option you both agree with. It can take time for a child to heal after divorce but can be possible with the support of family, friends, and a compassionate therapist.