Anxiety can occur naturally for children as they get to grips with the world around them.
If excessive worrying interferes with their ability to function at home, at school, or with making friends, it may have become a bigger problem.
As we provide a safe space for children at our child psychology clinic, our trained child counsellors and child psychologists in Newcastle can offer support with therapies such as Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT), play therapy, family therapy, and other approaches.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
CBT, coupled with other child specific approaches (such as play therapy) can help your child to learn to cope with their difficulties and manage at home or at school more easily.
If your child has not outgrown fears that normally occur at a younger age, or if they are experiencing issues such as sleep disturbances, crying, worry, or physical signs of anxiety such as frequent stomach aches or feeling sick, you might want to explore whether anxiety counselling for children could be helpful
CBT is the recommended gold standard of treatment for anxiety, though other therapies such as those described can also be helpful.
Graded Exposure
Younger children and those with anxieties related to specific situations (such as fear of the dark, water phobia, or difficulty with settling on a night) might benefit from graded exposure with one of our child counsellors.
By encouraging your child to learn to tolerate anxiety in a safe and controlled environment, they learn to manage and overcome their anxiety instead of avoiding it.
Talking therapy and child counselling is useful in both validating your child’s feelings to encourage them to engage, as well as helping them learn new skills to manage their anxiety.
Family Therapy
Family therapy isn’t just for conflict within the family – it can be helpful to involve parents in their children’s therapy so that they can understand and support them better at home.
During our family therapy sessions in Newcastle for children’s anxiety, the child counsellor, child psychologist or family therapist might work with parents as well as the child to help develop a plan and strategies to help settle your child.
Family therapy is heavily rooted in non-judgement (as it’s understood that every family is different and may need different levels of support). It is also helpful for the therapist in helping them work with you to identify any patterns that might be creating barriers to your child’s happiness.
For More Information
If you would like to arrange to speak to one of our therapists about your child’s anxiety or difficulties, fill in the box below or call us on 07966645198 to speak to a member of the team today to see if we can help.
Best wishes,
Dr Stuart Sadler
Lead Clinical Psychologist
