Children & Adolescence


 

Young people's mental health is important for their overall well-being. Mental health problems are very real for young people and can be severe and painful. It can affect their school performance, ability to keep friends, or family interaction. 

The child’s mental health should be given thought and attention with professional services sought when needed. Early intervention with mental health services can help children get better in less time, often preventing problems from becoming worse. Serious emotional disturbances affect one in ten children. This may include depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, eating disorders, reactive attachment disorder, and/or bi-polar disorder.

Does your child exhibit any of the following behaviors?

  • Sadness
  • Isolation
  • Anxiousness
  • Worrying
  • Separation Anxiety
  • Sleep Disturbance
  • Eating Disturbance
  • Defiance/Disrespect
  • No regard for authority
  • Low self esteem
  • Obsessive about looks and appearance
  • Manipulation, blame game, lying, stealing
  • Lack of motivation and direction
  • Poor choice of friends
  • Anger or temper outbursts
  • Academic underachievement
  • Truancy/School Suspension
  • Drug or Alcohol Experimentation
  • Running Away
  • Trouble with the law
  • Sexual promiscuity

    • These are all behaviors that can become major obstacles and difficulties for children or teenagers as they move through their developmental milestones of growing up. The successful completion of each developmental milestone allows the child to continue to build upon it to the next. When one milestone becomes problematic and is not resolved, it impacts the child’s ability to move successfully to the next developmental milestone. This can inhibit your child and his/her development for the rest of his/her life.

    The therapists at Wholeness Healing Center work with children and adolescents using a systemic model, which means that we believe that children heal best if the family can participate and be guided in helping the child heal. This can be an idealistic perspective, but if the opportunity is there, we use the family and/or the parents to help their children heal. We work best through the systemic approach teaching, guiding, and supporting the parents in the process with their child. As we work with your child, you as the parents will be part of the process if only working on the periphery. We believe that the best gift that the child or teenager can receive through the therapy process is the ability to use their support networks in their own journey of life. 

    We want the experience of therapy to leave the child, teenager and/or parent fully empowered to manage their lives in a better or more enhanced way, which increases the quality of life within the family.

    Therapy modalities used for children and adolescents may include play therapy, art therapy, EMDR, Neurobiofeedback, family therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, attachment therapy, interpersonal therapy, and/or group therapy. The therapists generally use an eclectic approach, meaning they use parts of different therapy modalities to make a more individualized treatment plan. Not all of the modalities used will be listed here.

    Bully Support Group
    There is no question that school can be a challenging place for kids and if your child or adolescent is experiencing being bullyed "challenging" is an understatement. These children experience routine shaming and humilation and it can directly affect their emotional development and make life pretty stressful. As parents it can be a very difficult thing to watch your child experience bullying. Parents report feeling incredibly helpless. These children often exhibit high levels of anxiety, isolation/withdrawl, depression (not enjoying once enjoyed activities), temper outbursts, academic underachievement and truancy. Adolescents also often turn to poor choices in friends, drug and alcohol experimentation or sexual promiscuity. If this sounds like your child, they may benefit from joining this support group.

    Dorothy Molczyk, LMHP, LDAC is facilitating this after-school support group for middle school-high school age students. The group focuses on developing healthy coping skills, increasing self-esteem, brain-storming solutions and provides a safe enviroment to connect with other peers experiencing bullying themselves. Activities will focus on helping students develop assertiveness skills and deal with destructive behaviors.  For information on registration, please call our office at 382-5297, ext. 10.