James Foster & Associates Mental Health Services for Children
The Mental Health Services at James J. Foster & Associates, Ltd are both diverse and comprehensive. Child, teen and adult counseling is provided in the context of individual and family treatment for a wide range of problems and situations.
Child Therapy occurs in the forms of play, art storytelling and discussion. Pre-pubescent children do not have the capacity to use language in the same manner that adults use language. Adults can emotionally experience an event through describing it. Children frequently do no have this relationship with language, rather they use play and activity as a way of managing their emotions and working through issues. It is due to this phenomenon that play and activities have become mainstay of children's therapy. Children also are not expected to be accurate reporters of their own behavior. It is because of this that we only do therapy with children when the parents are involved through collateral therapy. Collateral therapies are separate therapy sessions held with the parents to discuss their child's progress, needs and vulnerabilities. These meetings provide crucial insights to the therapist about the meaning of the child's behavior in play. These meetings also provide the parents with the opportunity of developing insights about their children and strategizing new ways of assisting children to grow. At times, it becomes necessary for the parent to become involved in their own therapy in order to make changes that are necessary for the parent to be able to provide a constructive influence for the child. For example, if a child's depression is reflective of a parent's depression, the child's depression is not likely to decrease until the adult's depression is treated. Children enter treatment for a wide range of mental health problems including:
-Child Trauma (divorce, accidents, witnessing catastrophic events)
-Anxiety based disorders in children
-Elimination disorder in children
-Psychotic Childhood disorders
-Attention Deficit Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder ADD/ADHD
-Medical condition or preparation for surgery
-Oppositional Defiant Disorder(ODD)
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