Does your child need therapy?

There are grown people dipping and dodging licensed therapists and trading advice with their traumatized friends and associates. But let’s be honest, therapists are extremely useful in not only digging up old unresolved childhood traumas but in helping correcting the toxic thoughts and behaviors that have us all in chokeholds.

I, myself, have seen a therapists several times throughout my lifetime and I am proponent for therapy throughout various stages in our lives.

I pose a question…. How do you know if your child would benefit from therapy?

Some common tales would be sudden changes in behavior, new undesired habits, like wetting the bed or nail biting, and/or regressing to previously conquered stages.

The psyche can be fragile and most often children either don’t know how to express themselves or fear that they will get in trouble. When your child tells you something in confidence, how do you react? Do you provide a welcoming safe place? Or do you cut them off and tell them how to feel while simultaneously dismissing their feelings altogether? It’s important for us, as the parents, to be self aware so we are cognizant how we show up for our children and, most importantly, how we show up in their lives.

Parenting is hard! But sometimes we need to take a step back and acknowledge a cry for help no matter how silent it may be. Setting the example by openly speaking about our feelings can set the tone in communication styles which will follow them throughout their lives.

Just like most difficult things in life, parenting isn’t linear. And, unfortunately, there isn’t a manual and even more unfortunately, sometimes we won’t get it right. How we react during our successes and failures, we provide our children with a figurative blueprint.