Children with special needs require specialized, supportive therapy for that embraces their unique strengths.
Furthermore, children with special needs may not have the verbal ability to talk about their emotions.
And, children on the autism spectrum need other avenues of emotional expression to let go of their feelings. At Wisdom Within Counseling in Niantic, we use art, yoga, music, and animal therapies to help support you and your child with special needs.
Angry, Frustrated Children Gain A Voice Through Art
First, it is alarming and challenging to learn your child has been diagnosed with special needs.
And, your child’s school calls you and says your child isn’t acting as they should.
In short, behavioral and emotional issues develop and prevent a child from being confident and learning at school. Then, add the diagnosis of autism or special needs, and it can take a toll on your family and marriage. Moreover, art therapies and music can act as a non-verbal language for your child to release feelings.
Additionally, children often show outbursts and anger after the death of a loved one or pet, breakup/divorce, remarriage, bullying, sexual/physical abuse, and gender identity issues.
Further, the creative, art and music therapies in Niantic at Wisdom Within Counseling help your child with special needs with processing these overwhelming emotions.
Play Therapy and holistic child therapy helps your a little one with special needs learn to verbalize emotions like anxiety and anger. Even if your child might not be participating at school, an individualized environment in child therapy using expressive arts and nature can help them build self-esteem. The team at Wisdom Within Counseling knows how to step into a frustrated child’s world. Using a mixture of play therapies and creative expressive arts, your anxious child can slowly start to come out of their shell and learn healthy ways to make friends.
By combining a variety of highly effective, evidence-based healing modalities, children with special needs who are on the autism spectrum can learn and build positive coping skills and lifelong self-confidence.
Read more about each of these below.
Animal & Adventure Therapy Groups
How a child with special needs feel differently
As a group of professional child therapists, we know that children need stuffed animals, puppets, play to facilitate self-expression.
At Wisdom Within Counseling, we help children express their feelings of sadness and anger about a parent’s divorce through play.
Furthermore, a child with special need may need more support in understanding divorce, separation, and needs alternative ways for emotional expression. And, playing out situations at home such as role playing with puppets and feeling cats is healing for a child with special needs.
What is one play therapy and child therapy told that you can use at home today?
Furthermore, we recommend that you purchase feeling cats for your home, here. We love the feeling cats at Wisdom Within counseling! There are tons of emojis and various stuffed animals with belly pockets to help children learn about their emotions. Having these feeling cats at home can be a positive tool to help your child process emotions. Children can put an emotion like sleepy, angry, nervous, uncomfortable, or even left out into the cat’s belly to symbolize that they are feeling this way. Also, when you reinforce what we do in session, it helps your child learn the positive skills faster. See an example of the feeling cats below.
Play Therapy For Children in Niantic
Furthermore, in therapy, we help children learn healthy behaviors and interactions with others that promote positive growth. Considering that, play therapy can be exactly what anxious children need to help them feel safe in order to express their feelings and emotions.
Child therapists at Wisdom Within Counseling specialize with anxious children who don’t want to talk
Additionally, it can be quite difficult for children and even some adults to fully express them selves using words. Also, asking a child to do talk therapy or CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) can be re-traumatizing for them. As a result, pressure to preform or look perfect all the time is why some adolescents begin to cut and self-harm.
Your child with special needs doesn’t have to talk and can use toys, dolls, stuffed animals, and sensory objects to let go of their feelings and release in healthier ways.
To begin, used a pink button below to book your free phone consult for child therapy and emotional confidence.
Eli and Charlie Help Children and Teenagers Release Feelings
Next, meet Eli and Charlie! They are the “Feeling Cats” that live in my office and are a great tool for build emotional perception with children. No matter what a child is feeling, it is totally okay, but often it because difficult to accurately express. As a result, Eli and Charlie teach children that people can have more than one feeling at a given time. Their belly pouches are big, a child can fit all of their feeling emoji’s inside.
Benefits of The Feeling Cats
Note, even when I do therapy with children and teens, the Feeling Cats are a huge favorite! I teach anxious children relaxation techniques, calming practices that can be used outside of my office. When a child has anxiety, it can be overwhelming and difficult to express verbally, as an adult would. The feeling cats offer emotional expression while yoga therapy supports soothing breathing techniques for children. Interestingly, children and teens often look forward to continuing and building upon these breathing skills because I make learning them fun and personalized!
Externalization and Expression of Emotion
Furthermore, children with behavioral issues deeply benefit from specialized, one-on-one therapy that allows them to express themselves without negative consequences, which are often experienced at school and in more disciplinary settings. After starting therapy, children slowly build up their level of trust over time.
Building and Teaching Trust In Children
Wisdom Within Counseling often uses painting, art, yoga, and play therapy to join, connect, and bond. Once this beginning phase of therapy takes place, your child will gain self-awareness, insight, and trust. They will begin to learn the reasons behind their behavior, how emotions impact them, and their personal trigger points. As well, they will learn positive coping skills. In addition, we offer family sessions, couple sessions, sibling sessions, parent-child sessions, and individual sessions, which may be more appropriate at different times.
For Parents/Grandparents/Caregivers:
- It took a lot of courage to get here. You may feel unsure of how to meet your child’s needs and how to parent in some ways, but you are not alone. Many people struggle with raising children. You are brave and strong for reaching out. We will collaborate in family sessions, parent conversations and sessions, sibling sessions, and child sessions together to meet the unique needs of your child.
For Kids:
- Its safe here. You don’t have to talk. We get to have fun meeting together. When you do feel like talking, I listen.
- It is always okay to cry and ask for help. I have a safe space where you can work out your problems in any way that comes naturally to you. I am excited to meet you!
For Everyone:
I don’t focus on pathology and diagnoses. I focus on strengths and potential. In other words, a diagnosis can offer insight, provide ground work for academic accommodations, and a 504 plan or IEP for extended testing time. However, I do consider that asa factor, but I believe that there is more to someone than a label. In time, some labels can even change or go away. Therefore, the type of therapy I provide focuses on the whole person, is evidence-based, skill-based, is relational, and is holistic.
Losing a pet is just like losing a family member, especially for a child or young adult.
The sadness, depression, and crying is totally okay and an important part of the process. These feeling may linger and stay with a person for years. A pet is a beloved friend, a companion, and family member, just like a any human. A pet can feel like a sibling because your pet has been there with you like a best friend through the ups and downs of life. It is totally okay to feel like you have a huge hole in your heart. Feelings of intense pain and loss are normal with the loss of your friend. Read more about pet loss for children, here.
Crying is 100% okay and healthy.
Some children and teenagers have a low crying and low frustration threshold. Sometimes life can be unstable, so during those times, crying may happen more. Nutrition is an essential part of having balanced and stable mood. Use a free app on your phone like, “My Fittness Pal,” to make sure you’re getting a balanced and healthy amount of protein, whole grain carbohydrates, real fats, as well as fiber (prebiotics, which are the precursor for probiotics to flourish a.k.a beneficial gut flora) potassium (plays a major role in uplifting mood and preventing muscle cramps). It is important to eat throughout the day too. Bring snacks if you are at school or work. Crying may happen more during times of pet loss as well.
Child Therapy For Loss, Deaths, and Even Pet Loss
Never let anyone make fun of you for crying or tell you that you’re being silly. It is natural and normal to feel intense grief over the loss of a pet. It is healthy to grieve, to cry, and to express the wonderful life your pet had through art. At times, sharing grief, memories, stories, and empathy can bring the parent-child relationship closer together.
Mourning and Healing From Pet Loss
During the time you and you your beloved pet were together, you went through a lot of life experiences. Your child’s pet was a huge part of your daily life and a best buddy, who offered warmth, comfort, companionship, compassion, unconditional love, bight smiling eyes, acceptance, and joy!
Pet Loss In Children – Child Therapy
Remember that people who do not own pets or have never had a connection to a pet like you, may not understand how to help you or may not know what to say. They may even say the wrong thing. Let these people roll off your back and focus on the caring, empathetic people around you. Just like there are animal lovers in the world, there are also people who won’t ever understand it. Remember, many other people have felt sad and depressed after losing their pets and that you are not alone. There are other pet owners with hurting hearts going through the same thing and felt the same feelings.
Holding It All Inside vs. Expression of Emotion In Children
Unresolved pet loss can lead to negative behaviors and thoughts. When loss goes unremembered, it is really difficult to cope in the future with losses that will happen. Being a human being also means that death doesn’t get easier. It will usually be a really sad few months or years depending on your loss.
Text/Call us at (860) 451-9364 to get started in holistic therapy today.
Experiential therapy can help heal all types of loss.
By talking about the memories of your beloved pet, healing can take place. Talking can be helpful, but sometimes talking can be too much. That is why I offer yoga, art, music, and animal-assisted therapies. Furthermore, I know how hard it can be to deal with and heal loss. It can be so tough and sad. As a result of having been there myself, this is why I offer mixed-methods of compassionate, holistic therapies. Art therapy and painting can be a beautiful way of expressing yourself and remembering the love you had with your pet.Children with Special Needs In School
First, parents are often confused over which behavioral therapy approach to take when it comes to parenting, understanding, and loving their child with special needs. To begin, schools frequently move young children with special needs into mainstream classrooms too early, sometimes missing the diagnosis entirely. Shifting a child with autism away from small-group prosocial behavioral programs can slow and decrease progress.
Why do children have emotional outbursts and how can child therapy help?
For instance, say a child with special needs has finally adjusted. Over the course of four months, they have a routine with daily interactions. For a while, they are in the same classroom they are use to, a teacher they have connected with and know, and a very small environment with only a few peers. Then, the suggestion is made to move this child from this environment in to the mainstream classroom. However, this disruption in the “same” routine and change would likely lead to behavior problems in the new classroom and a regression in many of the newly developed positive skills learned over the past four months in the small class setting.
Join For Our Next Animal Therapy Group!
Children with special needs succeed best when they are involved in small-group, consistent and in-person, peer-focused social stimulation. Studies show that children who receive continual one-on-one therapy are more likely to receive the significantly beneficial support they deeply need in order to, in some cases, outgrow the diagnosis entirely by their mid to late 20’s. Implementing individual and family therapy sooner than later can lead to more age-appropriate skills later, thus allowing an easier transition into the mainstream, when your child is ready.
I run emotionally-focused social learning groups with animals! We rotate between Equine Therapy, Goat Therapy, and chickens, turtles, owls, and geese. I understand the behavioral health challenges that affect a child’s educational and life experiences.
Since 2009, I have worked with children with special needs in a number of different settings. I know what it takes to ensure the greatest success of every child. I advocate for the needs of children and young adults that require specific academic accommodations to grow academically.
Our Team of Therapists Helps With:
Meditation, Self-Awareness, and Mindfulness Techniques
Body Language, Conversational Skillfulness, and Job Readiness
Time Management and Homework Planning
Skill-Based Learning For Self-Harming
Test Anxiety Reducing Skills and Techniques
Naturally-Focused Nutritional Guidance
What Your Child/Teen Gains
Development of Assertive Abilities with Family
Reduced Parent-Child Relationship Problems
Peer Pro-Social Growth Skills
Creativity, Emotional Expression, and Organizational Skills
Increase In Verbal Communication and Emotional Processing
Self-Care, Hygiene, and Routine Development
Goal Setting and Following Through Abilities
Typically, Wisdom Within Counseling provides couple sessions for parenting and emotional support, family and sibling sessions, and individual sessions with your child, depending on their age. Together, we can work as a team with your child’s or teens’s teacher and school system to create and implement a personalized educational plan for their success.
With all team members working together, the team of therapists at Wisdom Within Counseling in Niantic help you and your child best accomplish important social developmental milestones, academic goals, and family bonds.
Wisdom Within Counseling specializes in child and play therapy to help little ones build emotional awareness.
Additional Personalized Services Offered
Academic Accommodation Advocacy
Structural Family Assessment and Plan
Educational Success Plan
Referrals to Tutors and Highly Specialized Professionals
Communication with Teachers and School
