The team at Wisdom Within Counseling along the shoreline in Southeastern Connecticut help anxious children and teenagers thrive. Counseling in Mystic, Connecticut for anxious children and teenagers helps teach outlets for anger, jealousy, fear, and anxiety. An anxious child might pick their skin, might be very frustrated or frazzled more easily.
How can adults and parents tell when children and teenagers need counseling for anxiety?
So, children with anxiety might have skin picking, nail biting, or pick acne. Also, children and teenagers often have disruptive behaviors at school. With obsessive thoughts, anxiety, and fears, they can’t really concentrate. As well, when learning math or science, they’re easily distracted by their own fears or trauma experiences. Also, children with anxiety might be getting bullied more frequently.
Counseling in Mystic, Connecticut for anxious children and teenagers helps rebuild self-esteem tools. Often, children and teens with anxiety and depression are seen as an outcast by peers, or as a bad kid by teachers. Many times, teachers do not understand how trauma, fear, loss, and depression cause negative behaviors in school.
What are challenging, intense emotions and where do they come from?
In school, children and teenagers do not learn how to express and let go of anger, anxiety, jealousy and fear in healthy positive ways. Also, due to dysfunction family environments, alcoholic parents, and conflict within the home, children they not learn these emotional coping skills from parents or loved ones.
A parent may be struggling with a drug addiction or anger management issues themselves. So, they do not have the tools to teach their child how to cope when angry. When a child watches domestic violence, or experiences sexual abuse, and trauma, they need counseling to cope and heal.
To begin, book a free phone consult holistic, creative counseling in Mystic, Connecticut for anxious children and teenagers and for positive coping tools.
A child may unfortunately learn to yell, punch holes in the wall, or throw things when angry from a dysfunction home environment. An emotional meltdown is a sign that your child has overwhelming anxiety, and they need strategies to manage it.
Seeing guardians or parents yell at one another or drink alcohol in excess normalizes dysfunctional and negative coping behaviors for children. Wisdom Within Counseling specializes in teaching children emotional confidence tools and communication skills for lifelong mental wellness.
In addition, children and adolescents with anxiety and trauma might have overthinking behaviors.
Over planning, making too many lists, and compulsive thinking are traits of an anxiety disorder. Children, adolescents, and teenagers may be suffering from anxiety symptoms. As well, children and teenagers with anxiety have ruminating thoughts that aren’t really that helpful.
A lot of times, teenagers with anxiety will withdraw socially. If your teenager feels like an outcast, they may have symptoms of social anxiety. If you child or teenager has stopped hanging out with friends, this is a sign counseling in Mystic, Connecticut for anxious children and teenagers can help.
Often, with anxiety and depression, children and teenagers will not want to talk to their closest relatives like grandma or grandpa. Teenagers may refuse food and comfort, and won’t even want to come eat for a family dinner.
What are children and teens really feeling when angry, aggressive, or anxious?
Children, adolescents, and teenagers actually feel relieved and more centered when they work with a therapist. A lot of times, underneath anxiety are a variety of emotions. Children, teens, and young adults have an iceberg of feelings under anger and anxiety. Your child could be feeling scared, worried, concerned, or overwhelmed about domestic violence happening again.
Sensory processing disorders
On another note, your child may experience sensory overload, selective mutism, or feel angry due to too many sounds. Some children are sensitive to too many smells, too many people, or refuse to eat lunch in a noisy cafeteria. Skipping meals can lead to mood instability. Children often experience the feelings of loss and anger when parents are divorcing or separating. Maybe, a close grandparent has recently died or a family pet has passed away. These all contribute to childhood anxiety.
Child and teen therapy is a safe place for crying
A lot of children will cry when they have anxiety, but peers may call them a, “baby,” or “sissy.” On the playground, children get made fun of and ostracized when they cry or show sad emotions. Children learn to push away tears and that crying is going to get them bullied. Sometimes, an abusive parent will also punish a child for crying or feeling sad.
Due to emotional abuse, your child or teenager may not know it is okay to cry. They may push away tears and stuff away their emotions. So, therapy at Wisdom Within Counseling can help your child or teen be able to verbalize what’s going on and know it is acceptable to cry. So, a child might get angry and irritated when they need to cry.
To begin, book a free phone consult holistic, creative counseling in Mystic, Connecticut for anxious children and teenagers and for positive coping tools.
Holistic, creative counseling in Mystic, Connecticut for anxious children and teenagers helps build anxiety coping strategies.
An anxious child might not want to go to school. School refusal is very common when dealing with anger, anxiety, and depression. Your child or adolescent might not be excited as other kids are about their hobbies. As well, your child may have become less bubbly than they used to be after a new diagnosis, chronic pain, or parent’s divorce.
If your child has anxiety, they need tools to overcome low self-esteem in therapy.
When your child is a perfectionist or doubts themselves, Wisdom Within Counseling in Southeastern Connecticut helps them build confidence. Our team of therapists help children, teens, and young adults manage obsessive or compulsive thoughts and develop flexible thinking.
What are other signs that your child, adolescent, or teenager can benefit from holistic, creative counseling in Mystic, Connecticut?
Your child or adolescent with anxiety might even withdraw from certain siblings. If your teen or child is experiencing any of these, they are suffering from unresolved anxieties. Maybe, they have become less outgoing and you to feel concerned as a parent. Any worry as a parent is something to listen to.
Parenting your anxious child
In family counseling and child therapy, when a child is anxious, it’s natural for you to feel concerned and worried as a parent. Counseling also help parents kind of calm their nervous system and model coping tools. As a parent, you can feel more confident helping your child through their difficult emotions. At Wisdom Within Counseling, our team specializes with children and teenagers who have anxiety.
Working with a child and family therapist can help you as a parent and your child build anxiety confidence.
Wisdom Within Counseling in Southeastern Connecticut teaches parents and children positive anxiety coping strategies. Your child’s counselor will personalize what works for your child. We offer art, yoga, music, outdoor nature therapies to help children with intense emotions, loss, and anxiety.
To begin, book a free phone consult holistic, creative counseling in Mystic, Connecticut for anxious children and teenagers and for positive coping tools.
When children, adolescents, and teenagers get in counseling, they can learn healthy coping tools to deal with worry, self-criticism, and low self-esteem.
Overall, children, adolescents, and teenagers need a special therapist that can use a creative, holistic and playful approach. The team at Wisdom Within Counseling in Southeastern Connecticut specialize with children, adolescents, and teenagers.
Our counseling team helps children and teenagers to believe in themselves again. Counseling in Mystic, Connecticut for anxious children and teenagers helps teach positive coping strategies that they may have lost due to trauma.
If your child is talking about concerning things, Wisdom Within Counseling in Southeastern Connecticut can totally understand them.
Furthermore, counseling in Mystic, Connecticut for anxious children and teenagers incorporates child centered play therapy. Play therapy is the language of a child, so our team steps into a frustrated child’s world. Talk therapy is not effective alone for children, as they don’t have language skills to talk as an adult can. So, children that have anxiety can use clay, play dough, puppets, watercolors, acrylic paints, and outdoor nature therapies.
Wisdom Within Counseling in Southeastern Connecticut helps children feel validated and heard through holistic, creative therapies.
We know they’re not going to talk just like an adult would about a divorce, trauma, or sexual abuse. An adult will sit down and say, “I’m having anxiety because I’m going through divorce.” Also, an adult can say, “It’s really impacting my sleep and appetite.” However, a child or adolescent will not be able to do that. At Wisdom Within Counseling along the shoreline in Connecticut, we understand what a child or teenager with anxiety needs emotionally to feel confident again. We specialize in child-centered play therapy, nature therapies, art therapies, and expressive arts.
How does play therapy work when it comes to counseling in Mystic, Connecticut for anxious children and teenagers?
Children can use puppets, toys, miniature people, books and art and musical instruments in our office to express anger, anxiety, worry, and jealousy. Often, children need projection tools to share in their language. We are trained to step into an anxious child’s world, and connect with them. Counseling in Mystic, Connecticut for anxious children and teenagers helps children build trust with themselves. Also, a child therapist can understand what’s going on in your child’s mind through play therapies. Furthermore, your child’s therapist can then work with you to provide positive parenting skills to use at home for helping reduce anger and anxiety.
To begin, book a free phone consult holistic, creative counseling in Mystic, Connecticut for anxious children and teenagers and for positive coping tools.
LGBTQIA+, queer, non-binary, transgender, sexuality, and gender expression in children, adolescents and teenagers
In addition, with adolescents and teenagers, they may have anxiety that you don’t realize is coming from gender questioning feelings. Your teen might want to use they/them pronouns.
Or, your adolescent or teenagers may be coming out as non-binary or transgender. Also, your adolescent or teenagers may identify as queer, lesbian, bisexual, or pansexual.
In LGBTQIA+ affirming, holistic counseling, we offer positive parenting support and positive coping strategies for your gender expressive child.
At Wisdom Within Counseling in Mystic, Connecticut, our team works with anxious children and teens that are gender expressive.
Often, on top of gender and sexuality exploration, children and teens also have concerning behaviors like anger, rejection, anxiety, and jealousy. We help children, teens, and families in counseling who need a creative, holistic approach.
Counseling in Mystic, Connecticut for anxious children and teenagers provides a safe place to talk about sexual orientation.
Transgender and gender fluid children and teenagers need a therapist that’s educated, willing, and open to talking to them about their gender and sexuality. LGBTQIA+ exploration, queerness, gender, and sexuality are other specialties that we work with when it comes to adolescents and teenagers. Lastly, LGBTQIA+ and transgender teenagers can learn tools to manage anger, healthy friendship skills, and healthy dating boundaries.
What are creative, holistic therapies available at Wisdom Within Counseling in Mystic, Connecticut for anxious children and teenagers?
If your teen has anxiety or your child is struggling with worry, Wisdom Within Counseling would love to step in and offer a creative approach. A teenager could go for an outdoor walking session by the beach to build self-esteem. Maybe, you have brought your child to a talk counselor that made them sit, and it just didn’t work for their style. Children and teens can throw the ball around outdoors with their therapist or paint with watercolors to express anger.
Nature, outdoor, and walk and talk therapies help teenagers start to open up in the world again after depression. From working with a therapist, your child or teen can realize the world is a safe place after trauma and loss.
To begin, book a free phone consult holistic, creative counseling in Mystic, Connecticut for anxious children and teenagers and for positive coping tools.
Many children do not do well in a traditional sitting and talking style of therapy.
We don’t ask your child too many questions or force them to talk. A lot of times as adults, we love asking questions to get more information. But, for a child with anxiety, it can be very overwhelming to be questioned.
Sometimes, asking too many questions can actually create anxiety, because a child feels like they have to have an answer to the question. A child might not even know the answer, because they’re still trying to figure out what they feel.
Instead, Wisdom Within Counseling offers a unique, specific style of therapy including art, yoga, music, and creative arts options.
We get on the floor and play with your child at their level. From there, counseling in Mystic, Connecticut for anxious children and teenagers helps pinpoint what’s going on emotionally.
Our team of child, adolescent, and teen therapists teach positive coping strategies for releasing challenging emotions.
How do we teach children, teens, and young adults to identify feelings?
Anxiety is with each of us and is often a protective emotion. Meaning, after fear, being scared from watching parents argue, or experiencing sexual abuse, children get anxiety. So, in counseling, we help children and teens use “I feel” statements.
For instance, a child may learn to express, “I feel anxiety when I’m trying a new food.” Or, instead of getting angry and punching sibling or the wall, a child may say, “I’m feeling angry and jealous about all the toys my sibling is using because they take them without asking.” Child and family therapy in Southeastern Connecticut helps parents start to positively model emotional language skills.
To begin, book a free phone consult holistic, creative counseling in Mystic, Connecticut for anxious children and teenagers and for positive coping tools.
We teach children resilience and emotional coping tools
Now, in childhood and for teenagers, resilience is a key to overcoming anxiety. Resilience and emotional coping skills go together. These are skills that are built over time. So, just like learning to ride a bike or learning to brush their teeth, a child can learn from their counselor how to cope with anger, loss, and fears.
Anxiety in children trying new things
Children often have anxiety around trying a new food, or trying a new hobby. Trying ice skating or a new sport leads to social anxiety. Therapy in Mystic, Connecticut can be that safe place for your child to process what they’ve been through. Counseling can start to normalize these different emotions that they’re experiencing when trying something new for the first time.
How often should my child goto counseling in Mystic, Connecticut for anxiety?
A one time appointment doesn’t cut it for a child. Think of learning emotional coping tools like going to school.
Each day your child will experience a variety of emotions, and they need therapy regularly to learn to cope. To note, children and teenagers need regular, weekly, and consistent therapy to build a holistic, creative, positive coping skill toolbox.
We love working with families and helping families thrive.
Children that have worry and anxiety might have some anxious behaviors and obsessive thoughts.
We use a mixture of creative therapies to help children thrive.
So, puppets can be really great for children with anxiety. Also, using clay, painting, going outside, and throwing the ball around can help to build trust and security within a therapeutic relationship.
Musical instruments, drums, shakers, dance and help bring out your child’s best self and develop emotional expression.
Child therapy can help free them from their anxiety. And also, teach them how to cope and how to get through the day when they have panic or anxiety.
We help children, adolescents, teens, and families in Madison, Clinton, Guilford, Ivoryton, Essex, Middletown, Rocky Hill, Colchester, Hebron, East Haddam, Hadlyme, Old Lyme, Branford, Old Saybrook, Westbrook, Bozrah, East Lyme, Franklin, Griswold, Groton, Ledyard, Lisbon, Montville, New London, Montville, Uncasville, North Stonington, Norwich, Preston, Salem, Sprague Stonington, and Waterford, Connecticut.
From divorce, to bullying, to selective mutism, to social anxiety, to surviving childhood sexual trauma, we can help.
And, Wisdom Within Counseling would love to help you and your child overcome anxiety. Counseling helps children and teenagers build better self-esteem and holistic positive coping strategies.
From counseling, your child or teenager can be emotionally prepared for whatever life brings their way.
Katie Ziskind, the owner of Wisdom Within Counseling in Niantic, and the team of therapist would love to help you and your family thrive.
Your child or teen who has anxiety can learn to release that in healthy positive ways using art, yoga, music, outdoor walking therapies, outdoor play therapy. From counseling, children can build emotional confidence tools.
