Child Therapy
Our child therapy service is designed to help children navigate challenges, improving their personal and social skill development with gentleness, understanding, and support.
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Our therapy team has experience working with children dealing with a range of issues, including developmental challenges, social challenges, emotional and behavioural disturbance, as well as exposure to trauma.
1. What You Can Expect
Our therapy team uses various techniques to address issues specific to the needs of each child and their family situation. The therapy technique may depend on the nature of the problem, the child’s age, and other factors. The selection of therapeutic approach will be discussed with the child’s parents/primary carer following initial assessment. This approach is centred on supporting a child to feel comfortable participating in the therapeutic process, maximising the potential for a child’s learning and improvement in overall well-being.
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Our child therapy service will initially schedule either a single session or series of sessions to assess the presenting problem. This will involve engaging directly with the child, their parents/primary carer, and any significant other persons when needed. The engagement of other persons significant to a child’s presenting problem, such as a child’s school, will be discussed with a child’s parents/primary carer if required, considering the benefit of such follow-up and how this can be achieved. Follow-up will be subject to parental/primary carer consent.
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The aim of the initial assessment is to gather information to provide a comprehensive understanding of a child’s experience as relates to the presenting problem. In some instances, this may be enhanced by formal psychological testing by our clinical and educational psychologist. The benefit of collecting such information as may contribute to responding to the presenting problem will be discussed upfront with a child’s parents/primary carer.
2. Therapeutic Approaches
There are several established modalities for providing child therapy that may be drawn upon by our child therapy service.
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This may include child-centred play therapy, which is particularly useful as a play-based intervention for younger or developmentally delayed children. This approach supports a child’s whole of body experience for healthy development and self-regulation. The child therapist utilises a playroom as a safe space to help children process their feelings through symbols and play, providing age-appropriate psychoeducation to support children’s experiential learning and experimenting with adaptive function.
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It may also include applied behavioural analysis, which is a well-known therapy approach that is developmentally appropriate for working with autistic children. The child therapist focuses on rewarding desirable behaviours to increase their frequency, minimising a child’s reliance on less acceptable behaviours. This therapeutic approach teaches children about the application of behaviours in real-life settings and addresses adaptive learning, self-regulation and management, as well as social communication and interacting with others.
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Older children, while also open to participating in child-centred play therapy, may more commonly engaged in cognitive behavioural therapy. Using this therapeutic approach, the child therapist will teach a child how his/her thoughts cause feelings that affect behaviours. This, then, opens the opportunity to help each child identify distorted and harmful thinking patterns, learning how to replace them with more appropriate ones and improve their mood and behaviour.
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Among adolescents, both cognitive behaviour therapy and dialectical behaviour therapy approaches are commonly used by our therapists. Dialectical behaviour therapy is a form of behaviour therapy that is often used among high-risk mental, emotional, and behavioural presentations of vulnerability/disturbance. The therapist approach for working with adolescents will aim to build a trusting relationship through which a teenager can learn to safely express and process their life experience, teaching and supporting them in the application of coping strategies and skills to improve the way they think, manage extreme emotions, and engage in interpersonal relationships, providing hope for their future.
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Importantly, the client-therapist relationship provides a safe and trusting relationship that allows a child to heal from hurt, when necessary, as well as supporting his/her skill development for self-regulation, adaptive behaviours, and communication with others. This, in turn, will help decrease any negative or undesirable behaviours and improve a child’s overall sense of self-worth and level of adaptive function.
3. Presenting Problems
Our therapists have experience working with children dealing with a range of issues, including:
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learning difficulties
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developmental delay
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autism
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attention deficit disorder/attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
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school avoidance
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adjustment and change-related difficulties
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social and relationship problems
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anxiety and depression
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grief and loss
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oppositional behaviours
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self-harming/suicidal behaviours
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bullying
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low self esteem
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identity issues
4. What Else You Need to Know
Child therapy sessions will typically last 50 minutes, conducted as face-to-face appointments in our Therapy Centre in Caringbah. Arrangements for undertaking child therapy using a videoconference appointment schedule are discouraged and will only be considered by exception as an interim arrangement to face-to-face appointments. You will be provided details to assist your child’s attendance at your appointment once you have made your booking.
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If attending your scheduled appointment at the Therapy Centre, the child and his/her parents/primary carer can take a seat in the waiting area. The therapist will come and greet you at the scheduled appointment time.
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The initial session will include introductions, with the therapist outlining what the child and his/her parents/primary carer can expect in participating in therapy, and how to make the most of participation. On completion of the initial session, the therapist will provide feedback to the parents/primary carer about the presenting concerns and options for completion of the initial assessment and working towards addressing areas of concern. This may include the therapist offering to meet with both the child and parents/primary carer across a series of subsequent sessions, providing indication as to the number and frequency of therapy sessions that may be required.
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Over the course of the initial assessment, the therapist will need to inquire of the parents/primary carer about the broader life experiences of a child and his/her family situation. As such, some areas of inquiry may include the need to address topics that may be sensitive for a child to speak/engage with the therapist about. For example, where a child has experienced a traumatic incident or sudden loss. In such instances, the therapist will initially discuss with a child’s parents/primary carer the options available for engaging with a child about this, seeking to understand the parents/primary carers perspective and preferences in addressing such topics.
Individual Therapy
We offer individual psychotherapy to help our clients manage a range of mental health concerns including depression, anxiety, and relationship problems. Our therapists are trained to provide non-drug therapies, strategies, and techniques to promote positive psychological function and growth.​​
Couples Therapy
Our couples therapy services are designed to help couples overcome relationship challenges and improve communication, intimacy, and trust. Our therapists have experience working with a range of problems couples may face, including infidelity, financial stress, and parenting difficulties.
Family Therapy
Our family therapy service focuses on the interpersonal experiences of the members that make up a family system. Our therapists are here to help families communicate and navigate relationship challenges, working towards growth and improved interactions.