Do you have a child who is anxious, worried and doesn't seem to enjoy things most children enjoy?
Has your son or daughter experienced a major life transition such as a move, parental divorce or death of someone close to your family?
Has your child gotten in trouble at school or have behavior issues that you have no idea how to address?
Wellview Counseling can guide children, parents, and families through tough situations. Handling your emotions while supporting your child can be challenging. If you're feeling overwhelmed or unsure, child counseling, including the benefits of play therapy for children with chronic illnesses, can offer valuable support.
Common Reasons Children & Pre-Teens Come to Wellview Counseling
Our child and adolescent counseling services help children with a wide range of emotional, behavioral and mental health concerns. Some common reasons children or teens come to counseling include:
- They are fighting with family, friends, or authority figures.
- The child seems anxious, depressed or struggles with child separation anxiety.
- Maybe they cry often, seem sad or just plain irritable all the time.
- Parents notice they are isolating or withdrawing from activities.
- Social Problems
- There have been recent changes in the child’s life (divorce, family move, birth of a sibling, loss of a loved one), and you notice that they are struggling to adjust to the changes.
- History of abuse, neglect or any other major trauma (car accident, house fire, witnessing violence...)
- Someone close to your family has died and your child is struggling to express their emotions in a way that seems healthy.
- Your child is throwing temper tantrums at home or getting in trouble at school.
- The child or a close family member has a major illness or chronic health condition that the child either doesn't understand or has a strong emotional reaction to.
Counseling Helps Children, Pre-Teens & Families
A mental health professional can hep your child express their feelings in a healthy way and give you guidance about how you can help as a parent! Our caring therapists work with children as young as 3 years old. We've helped other families with similar struggles and would love to use our training and experience to help your child.
Imagine a world where you feel connected to your child again. Family dinners (even when you eat out!) are enjoyable again. You don't wait by the phone when you're at work or dread picking your child up from school, because you're afraid of another bad report. Your child seems happy and has positive relationships with peers. Things seem...better.
This is possible. Our counselors can help. If you live in the Atlanta, GA area and are ready to begin counseling for your child or teenager, call Wellview Counseling today.
Play Therapy for Children
Play is a child's natural language. Therefore, it makes sense to use a child's first language when trying to help them cope with big feelings or change their behavior. So our therapists typically use play therapy with our youngest clients. Play 
therapy uses the most natural of all communication methods to help a child express and cope with their feelings: play. Children often express themselves in non-verbal ways, so our therapists are trained to observe your child's play to find clues to what is happening in your child’s inner world.
Through play in the safety of a play therapy office, your child is able to full express emotion about past events. Many times, behavioral issues arise because a child did not get to fully process an experience from an earlier age. This causes them to feel stuck and makes adapting to a changing environment more difficult.
Through play therapy, your child uses their natural language to fully express everything going on inside. While children are often not able to use direct language, they can often explain, explore and process really complex ideas through metaphors in play. Often, a large part of the healing occurs in the play therapy environment where a child can safely act out something that has happened before and "try on" new responses to the situation. Our therapists can foster this process and encourage your child's growth.
What Will my Child do in Play Therapy?
Play therapy is a structured and effective approach to counseling with young children. You may think, "What is the Therapeutic Role of Play in Pediatric Care?" Play therapy offers a structured approach for young children to express emotions they can't verbalize. Through play, therapists help children develop adaptive behaviors in a supportive setting.Since children do not always have the vocabulary to verbally express their feelings and thoughts, play serves as the child’s language. In a play therapy session, children have the opportunity to work through challenges and express their emotions in a non-threatening, consistent, and supportive setting. Through play, therapists may help children learn more adaptive behaviors when there are emotional or social skills deficits.
The play therapy office will have a variety of toys, activities, games & art supplies. Our therapists work to make this environment seem safe and comforting to your child from the first time they enter. In the play therapy office, your child will have freedom to explore different activities to promote their healing. Depending on the needs and preferences of your child, counselors will use games, toys, and art/ creative expression to facilitate healing and change. Our play therapist will also support you in how to explain play therapy to a child with a chronic illness if that is what you need to support your child.
Child Counseling for Pre-Teens
Your pre-teen child is changing quickly. It's almost like you have to get to know them all over again. The things that used to work just don't seem to work with them anymore. Maybe they're spending less time with you as a family. Or they've started arguing with you...a lot. You want to help but you just aren't sure how.
For older children who are not yet teens, sometimes a blended approach to child counseling is
appropriate. Taking this approach, the therapist incorporates both traditional talk therapy with play therapy. By meeting the child where they are and incorporating both play and talk, we can help pre-teens as they transition from a child to a teenager.
Counseling for children and pre-teens may focus directly on particular areas for growth, such as social skills training, anger management, ADHD, communication skills, managing emotions and stress, anxiety treatment, or depression treatment. Our therapists will use creative arts, games and activities to engage your child and to help them learn new coping skills and strategies. They can help foster healing and growth in the same areas for concern listed above for play therapy. If you are reading this now, you are likely wondering if play therapy is right for your child. Give us a call or email us today to restore wellbeing for your child and your family.
Child Counseling in Roswell, GA
Being a parent is hard. You do everything you can for your child, but sometimes you feel at a loss. You know they need specialized help that you can't provide. Enrolling your child in counseling with a therapist who is specially trained to help children and families can help your family move forward. At Wellview Counseling, we help families thrive. Our child counselors are mental health experts who care about your child's success. We help children as young as three and work with families who live throughout the Atlanta area. In fact, our parent counseling sessions can even take place online when needed (learn more about our online counseling sessions here). Whether you have a three year old needing play therapy or a sassy 12 year old that you just want someone to talk to-we can help. The first step is to reach out to contact Wellview Counseling today.
Give your child the support they need to succeed by beginning play therapy, child counseling or parent coaching today!
Other Wellview Counseling Services
The therapists at our Roswell, GA counseling clinic can help with a wide range of mental health concerns. Below is a list of some of the other services we offer: