Emotional & Behavioral Issues
Therapy for Emotional and Behavioral Difficulties
Understanding emotions and our responses to them is challenging for anyone, but it’s especially so for children. In their first years, children are only just beginning to learn how to navigate their own thoughts and feelings about the world. In some cases, children require additional support to better understand themselves and what triggers them to react in certain ways. Therapy for emotional and behavioral difficulties can be especially valuable for children and their families as they are growing and developing. Wellington Counseling Group offers this support for patients in the Chicago area.
Understanding Emotional and Behavioral Issues in Children
Emotional and behavioral issues can be especially challenging for not only the children experiencing them but also the adults involved in the child’s life. Processing, understanding, and responding appropriately to emotional triggers and related stimuli is hard. It’s harder still when you’re a child and still learning what all of those emotions mean.
It’s not uncommon for parents and/or children to feel like their emotional reactions are outside the realm of their control. This is often the central complaint that brings a family to seek therapy for emotional or behavioral problems in the first place. It can present in many different ways, but we most frequently see:
- Difficulty controlling emotions
- Emotional meltdowns or outbursts
- Yelling, throwing things, or physical aggression
- Difficulty following instructions at home and school
- Difficulty managing transitional periods of the day
- Parents feeling out of control
- Parents struggling to establish and follow through with limits
Regulating emotions and behaviors is a skillset that is developed over a lifetime. Children and adolescents are more likely to struggle with the development of this skill set for the simple fact that they don’t yet have the emotional maturity that helps them cope with various triggers.
Therapy for Emotional and Behavioral Issues
Helping a child process and cope with emotions and the related behaviors is not a path that follows a straight line. There’s no step-by-step manual that helps parents and children navigate things as complex as emotions. However, therapy for emotional and behavioral challenges is a good place to start learning the various tools, techniques, and coping mechanisms so that everyone feels like they are in control of the situation, even when the complexity of emotions get involved.
What Counseling for Behavioral Issues Looks Like at WCG
Often, a family will embark upon the therapy process for emotional or behavioral issues after a referral from a pediatrician. Wellington Counseling Group strives to approach the emotional issues our patients are experiencing with the support of diagnostics. Our evaluations help us craft a targeted therapy approach that caters to the individual and their needs.
After an initial evaluation and consultation, we’ll begin working with the patient to help them better understand their emotions, triggers, reactions, and the de-escalation skills they may already possess. Additionally, we’ll help the patient craft and practice various coping mechanisms when they start to feel like their emotions are slipping out of their control.
Another facet of therapy for emotional and behavioral issues involves working with the adults and other figures of influence in a child’s life, which may include parents, teachers, or other caregivers. By helping the adults in a child’s life recognize the signs of an emotional breakdown, they can better support the child and help them understand their feelings and respond appropriately.
