How to Locate the Right Therapist For Your Child

When your child’s symptoms indicate a need for therapy due to a mental or emotional condition, it can seem quite difficult to find the person best suited for the task. A medical doctor or school counselor may have offered a referral, and that’s a good place to start, but it’s important to locate a therapist who is a good fit for your child.

We’ll first deal with the questions you can use to filter your search. It’s appropriate, as you make inquiries, to ask what experience the therapist has in treating your child’s specific disorder. For your own comfort level, it’s also important to know the method of treatment they will be employing. Will they rely primarily on medication to relieve your child’s symptoms? Are they open to alternative therapies like biofeedback? Asking those kinds of questions during your research can help you better understand the qualifications and background of individual therapists.

As you begin your search for the right therapist for your child, you have several sources of information at your disposal. Most medical society directories have ratings and background information on doctors in every type of practice.

If you are in a support group for parents whose children have a specific condition, asking other parents about their experiences with therapists can be helpful. As mentioned previously, your child’s medical doctor can provide information on therapists that patients have been referred to in the past. In the same way, the counselor at your child’s school may be able to provide details about child therapists to which students have been referred.

Another source of information regarding therapists is the abundance of directories available online. Some directories are maintained by professional organizations to which therapists may belong. Others may offer clinicians the opportunity to provide detailed profiles with their education, licensing, and areas of specialty to prospective clients.

It is helpful to know, as you read through a therapist’s profile, what their credentials indicate, because counseling professionals come from varied educational backgrounds. LCMFT, for example, indicates the therapist is a Licensed Clinical Marriage & Family Therapist.  The credentials LCPC mean that the therapist is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor with a Masters degree in psychology. LMSW would indicate they are a Licensed Master Social Worker.

Regardless of credentials, the therapist who is right for your child is the one who employs effective strategies to bring relief. Do your homework, choose the therapist you believe will relate best to your child and look forward to a brighter future for your child.

Alternative medicine: BrainCore Therapy's Neurofeedback therapy

The Ways That Therapists Help Patients

How Therapists Can Help

Therapists use a variety of approaches to help people who are struggling with hard times, or with chronic mental illness, to overcome difficulty and to create a sustainable, lasting plan for positive change. In the case of mental illness, they usually work in concert with a pharmaceutical treatment (medication designed for the particular disorder) or a natural therapy like biofeedback.

Here is a quick rundown of the most common approaches therapists take when attempting to help patients, and a little information about each of them:

1.       Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. This therapy has proven to be very effective for people who are suffering from depression. It consists of two major components: cognitive restructuring and behavioral activation. Cognitive restructuring helps a patient to change negative patterns of thinking that their disorder sometimes "traps" them into, helping them to force a more positive perspective and prevent themselves from spiraling into depression. Behavioral activation is centered on using activities that an individual enjoys in order to help them learn how to overcome emotional and mental difficulties in their life.

2.       Functional Analytic Psychotherapy. This is often used on its own or in conjunction with cognitive behavioral therapy. It has shown to be particularly effective for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Therapists start with what they perceive as clinically relevant behavior, such as the problem the patient presents while in session with them, and through a variety of methods, works to form a strong therapeutic alliance with the patient. The patient usually learns verbal processes to help them develop a new or more stable concept of themselves, and through behavioral analysis, learn why they feel compelled to behave in certain negative or destructive manners, and how they can curb or curtail those behaviors in the future.

3.       Jungian Psychotherapy. Also known as analytical psychology, this is a school that one of Freud's students, Carl Jung, developed in the 20^th century. It focuses on helping a patient live a meaningful life through personality development, self-awareness, transformation, and self-actualization. By helping patients change their views, understand their environments and their relationships to it, as well as their perspective or attitude, the patients gain the ability to take satisfaction from contributing to society. Jungian psychotherapy is heavily associated with mythology and symbolism, and the popular Myers-Briggs personality type test is based on Jungian principles.

4.       Process Psychology. This is described as a transpersonal psychology that often emphasizes mystical and spiritual concerns in patients who are seeking help. Process psychology is heavily influenced by Jungian psychology and the principles of systems thinking, a theory that states thought is a product of a system, so all parts of the system must be in good working order to produce positive mental health. 

NEUROFEEDBACK THERAPY FOR NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS