I'm Looking For Child Counselors Near Me And My Family—Where Should I Start?

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

How do I find a counselor for my child?

To find child counseling services and child counselors near you, you can go a variety of routes. First, you can ask your child's pediatrician or primary care doctor for a referral to pediatric or child counselors. If you want more control over the specific provider your child sees, you can conduct a web search for "child counseling near me" or "child counselors near me." If your child needs help with a specific concern and you're looking for child counselors that have extensive experience working with that concern, search for child counseling near you with a child counselor who works with that particular issue. For example, if your child struggles with ODD, you can search for "find child adolescent therapist ODD" results in your local area should come up. Another way to find a therapist for your child is to call your insurance provider and explain what you're looking for (for example, "I'm hoping to find child counseling for my ten-year-old with anxiety"), and to see what's available near you. Many insurance providers have websites with providers, ratings, and specialties listed. Additionally, when you find child counseling that looks like a good fit, the individual or counseling center will generally have the payment methods and insurance they accept listed on their website. Once you know who you might want your child to see for child counseling, you can contact the provider directly or ask for a referral. If you're looking for adolescent psychiatric care, you can search for that online or ask for a referral as well. There are web directories of a wide range of mental health providers, including child counselors, online. These web directories are easy to find through an online search. They can help you find an abundance of types of therapists, whether you're looking for a child counselor, a marriage and family therapist that works with couples, or something else.

Another option to find child counseling is to contact your child's school and ask if they can see the counselor onsite at the school counseling center. Your child's school or school district may be able to connect you with resources in or outside of your child's school. If your child's school has one, seeing a counselor at school can be a great place to start because your child is already used to their schooling environment. Consider seeing a marriage and family therapist who offers family therapy to attend counseling if you would like for your family unit. You can see a marriage and family therapist for family counseling in addition to providing your child with counseling sessions from a child counselor if you feel that it may be helpful for your child or your family unit as a whole. Your level of involvement in child counseling or teen counseling will depend on a child's age. It's understandable to be concerned about choosing the right therapist. One thing that can help you when looking for child counseling, a marriage and family therapist for family therapy, divorce counseling, or a provider with any specific approach to therapy is to look at their credentials and reviews online.

How do I know if my child needs counseling?

Adults seek counseling services such as divorce counseling, family counseling, couples therapy, and individual therapy all of the time. Still, it is also common and extremely beneficial for children and adolescent or teenage groups. Counseling can help with a wide variety of concerns. Some reasons you might seek a counselor for your child include:

• Life transitions such as divorce within the family
• Symptoms of anxiety, depression, eating disorders, or other mental health issues
• Troubles in school
• The trouble with friends or peers
• Bullying
• Substance use
• Witnessing abuse or domestic violence
• Overwhelm or difficulty with anger or stress management
• Behavioral issues
• Grief and loss

Another reason you might find a therapist for your child is current or former issues with child custody. Generally, a shift in mood or behavior indicates that your child may need counseling. In addition to child counseling, there are some circumstances where you may consider seeking family counseling from a licensed marriage and family therapist. A licensed marriage and family therapist is often referred to as an LMFT for short. You might come across many different types of therapists when looking to find a mental health provider. Someone might be a licensed marriage and family therapist (LMFT), a licensed professional counselor (LPC), a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW), or something else. When you find a therapist for your child, adolescent or family, it's important to look at their licensure, training, and background.

What are signs of anxiety in a child?

Anxiety is one reason that kids might go to child counseling. Therapies such as cognitive behavioral therapy are well-known forms of anxiety treatment issued by providers with experience in the mental health field. Signs of Anxiety in children include:

• Excessive worry
• Irritability or angry outbursts
• Bad dreams
• Physical symptoms of anxiety such as GI issues, shaking or sweating
• Difficulty speaking to others
• Trouble focusing (absent of other causes)
• Changes in mood
• Substance use

If you believe that your child may have anxiety, it is important to take them to a mental health provider offering therapy services such as play therapy specializing in anxiety and working with children. What sets child counselors apart is that their therapy services specifically cater to kids. In child counseling or therapy, kids can learn coping techniques, communication skills, emotional processing tools, and more, all in a child-friendly way. Perfectionism can sometimes pair with anxiety, as can difficulty with stress management. If your child has witnessed something traumatic such as domestic violence, they may be more likely to experience anxiety. One form of therapy known to help with anxiety is cognitive-behavioral therapy. Still, the specifics of your child's mental health treatment plan will depend on their age group, development, and overall needs.

What is pediatric counseling?

Pediatric counseling is synonymous with child counseling. It is an approach to therapy that is catered to children. A pediatric or child counselor is a mental health professional who works with kids. They have specific training that allows them to work with children and make children feel comfortable. Child counseling is led by a provider specializing in working with kids. Their office generally has toys, art supplies, and other child-friendly items. Children often play with toys during child counseling and actually have an enjoyable time there. Your child might even grow to look forward to counseling. A child adolescent counselor will have experience in growth development and clinical psychology. The knowledge of growth development and clinical psychology sets a child counselor apart; every therapy approach requires or encourages specific training, which is why, generally, therapy works best when you find a specialist. Additionally, therapy works best when a child sees a child counselor they're comfortable with. It may take some warming up at first, and that's normal, but you will often have a gut instinct as to whether child therapists are right for your child after meeting with them. You might also find child counselors in domestic violence shelters, social service facilities, hospitals or emergency rooms, and educational institutions. You may also be able to find child counselors that make home visits. if you struggle to get your child to go to child counseling, choosing a therapist that makes home visits might be your best bet.

There are many different types of therapy. The type of therapy your child, you, or you and your significant other will benefit from the most depends on various factors, including personality type and the concern(s) for which you're looking to find a therapist. Some forms of therapy include play therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy cbt, art therapy, trauma-informed therapy, divorce counseling, family therapy, marriage counseling, and premarital counseling. Cognitive-behavioral therapy cbt is a popular approach to therapy that helps people with a wide range of mental health issues. It can be used to treat children as well as teens and adults. A child adolescent counselor or therapist can provide cbt to children. Practices in cognitive-behavioral therapy are some of the most popular therapy techniques because it is a highly effective form of treatment that is generally short-term. Cognitive-behavioral therapy is one approach to therapy that can help your child learn new coping skills and other tools they'll use long-term; maybe, even for the rest of their lives.

How much should therapy cost?

With insurance, you may have a copay as low as $20 per session. Some forms of insurance even cover the full cost of mental health services, allowing an individual to get several counseling sessions for free. To find affordable child counseling, it's best to go with someone who takes your insurance. You can find child counselors covered by insurance by looking at your insurance website or giving them a call.

Without insurance, counseling can cost up to $250/session. The cost of counseling also partially includes where you see mental health specialists. For example, online counseling is nearly always cheaper than in-person therapy without insurance. The cost of online counseling is as low as around $60 per week. The online therapists at ReGain are licensed mental health providers that are adept at providing therapy services. Like a therapist in person, an online therapist might have different credentials and a different approach to therapy. An online mental health provider might be a licensed professional counselor, a licensed marriage and family therapist, or something else. As always, when seeking an online therapist, it is vital to look at their education, credentials, and background. If you work with a marriage and family therapist online, you can check to see where they went to school, how many years they've been practicing, their licensure, and any additional credentials they have.

How do you know if your child has behavior problems?

There are a lot of nuances when it comes to children and behavioral issues. Behavioral issues are sometimes more apparent than others. For example, if your child is headbutting, having angry outbursts, or bullying other children, those are overt concerns that may lead you to find a therapist for your child. Some of the nuances affiliated with children and behavioral issues are growth development, age, and familial background. If you are concerned about your child's behavior, trust your gut. Your child's mental health is of the utmost importance; if nothing else, therapy will give your child an outlet. Anyone can benefit from counseling, and people see mental health professionals for various reasons, including stress management, mental health concerns such as anxiety, OCD, or depression, family issues, and so on. External behavior problems are not the only reason to seek counseling for kids.

If your child has witnessed a domestic violence situation or any other form of abuse or mistreatment, it can be helpful to find a counselor for your child. You might even consider seeing a marriage and family therapist with your child. Be willing to be humbled and know that this is about your kid and their mental health. Remember that seeing a marriage and family therapist doesn't mean that there is anything wrong with you or your family. Therapy is a step in the right direction. It is not a sign of weakness or not being able to handle things on your own. Therapy from a marriage and family therapist or another kind of mental health provider is there to give you skills you can use long after counseling sessions stop.

How do you deal with a child that gets frustrated easily?

You can do a couple of things to help a child who gets frustrated easily. The first is to help them learn to identify their emotions - if they start to understand what frustration feels like in their mind and body, they'll be able to say, "I am frustrated," and talk it through. Validate their feelings and help them work to understand what made them feel frustrated and how to come to a resolution. Teach them that calm communication works by making it a point to hear them and affirm what they say when they speak. It could be that your child needs coping mechanisms that can help them deal with frustration healthily, and that is one of the times that child counseling can be incredibly helpful. In addition to child counseling, seeing someone who can assess your child for a condition such as ADHD may be beneficial in some cases. A proper diagnosis can lead to a referral to therapy or therapy services to help with specific conditions.

If your child gets frustrated often, and there are communication disparities in your entire family unit or communication disparities that exist solely with your child, a marriage and family therapist might help. A marriage and family therapist offers therapy services to help you and your family communicate officially and effectively. Sometimes, kids feel frustrated because they don't know how to express their feelings or don't feel understood. Children might not fully understand their own emotions. The great thing about seeing a marriage and family therapist for family counseling is that they can help you navigate the issue as a unit. In some cases, this is more helpful than child counseling alone that occurs only with your child and a mental health provider. It allows you to work through issues with frustration or anything else with the whole family present in real-time. A marriage and family therapist will know the questions to ask your child to help them communicate with you, and it might surprise you what comes out.

How do you discipline a child that won't listen?

You must follow through when a child doesn't listen to you and establish a consequence for their behavior. For example, if you say that they can't play on the computer that night if they don't complete a chore, you need to follow through without allowing them to play on the computer that night. Otherwise, they'll learn that they can talk their way out of consequences. This is why it's important not to say anything that you don't mean. Kids are extremely perceptive and need to learn that your word means something.

If your child struggles with discipline or acting out and nothing seems to work, it could be time to look for child counselors in your area or see a marriage and family therapist for family counseling. A marriage and family therapist will be able to help every person in your family feel heard, including your child. It can be helpful to have a marriage and family therapist there as an objective third person because they might be able to uncover the reason for some of your child's behavior and how to work through it. In addition to seeing a marriage and family therapist for family therapy as a unit, you might try to find child counselors in your area. That way, your child will receive child counseling from a mental health professional who works with them independently and with your family unit in joint sessions. This may seem daunting, but remember that child counseling and seeing a marriage and family therapist for family counseling are not things that'll last forever. Most forms of therapy, including child counseling, can make a positive long-term impact.

Does counseling help children?

Child and adolescent counseling is extremely beneficial. It is age-appropriate and can even turn out to be something fun for children in addition to helping a child deal with medical, mental health, familial, school, or life issues. Child counselors are adept at working with kids and know how to interact with the age groups. Child counselors can help children with a variety of mental health issues. They can help your child find healthy coping mechanisms, process emotions more efficiently, communicate and talk about feelings more effectively, and make children feel better simply because they have a place to talk. Remember that there are thousands of therapists out there and that if the first mental health provider or therapy techniques used to treat children do not work for your child, switching mental health providers may be the best option. Like any other medical professional or human being, people in the mental health field vary tremendously. Your child must receive care from a provider that they are comfortable with.

Individual therapy is not the only form of therapy that you can attend. You can also attend family counseling or family therapy with a licensed marriage and family therapist. Often, it is helpful to seek out from a licensed marriage and family therapist for issues within the family unit. Likewise, you might see a marriage and family therapist for family therapy if an individual and your family unit struggles with something like substance use or an eating disorder. Seeing a marriage and family therapist for family therapy serves a multitude of purposes. In that case, Seeing a marriage and family therapist can help you to understand and support that family more and to function efficiently as a family and general well-being cognizant of what this person is going through. You can look for a marriage and family therapist specializing in family counseling by searching "marriage and family therapist" near me or asking your insurance company if there is a marriage and family therapist they cover in your area.

When should I seek help for my child's behavior?

One thing to note is that, in addition to mental health concerns, children struggle with a wide variety of matters that are relatively new in this day and age. With the emergence of technology, we have a ton of resources that we didn't always have, and that is excellent, but with that come additional challenges for children, teens, and young adults. If your child exhibits symptoms of mental health concerns, it is imperative to seek a mental health professional for your child to see. Another reason to seek child counseling is if your family has been through some trials and tribulations of any kind. For example, if there's been a divorce in the family, a death in the family, or issues with siblings, it's a good time to seek counseling. Some additional reasons to seek child counseling include physical illness, whether it's the child that's ill or a family relative, troubles at school, whether that's academic or socially, difficulty with peers, complaints about anxiety or depressive feelings, difficulty with stress management or anger management, or really, anything else that is affecting the way your children feel. If your child acts out regularly, first, know that it doesn't mean that your child is not good, and it doesn't mean that you are not a good parent. In therapy, kids learn new coping skills that can help them for the rest of their lives and have a space to talk, which can be extremely important for their mental health and development.

When you're looking for a "child counselor near me", "teen counseling near me",  or a "teen therapist near me", find a child help based on location, needs, financial capability, and of course- your child's beahvior.

Different children and adolescents need assistance based on individual children and adolescents’ behavior. If your child or adolescent is displaying behavior that you do not know how to handle, for instance, be sure to find a child therapist or find a child counselor who will help. 

A child therapist will likely know how to identify the root of the problem, and a child therapist will be able to help discuss solutions. 

As mentioned before, if your child or adolescent behaves poorly at school or home, you might feel desperate for help. Even if things feel urgent, be sure to find child help based on your location, their needs, and your needs. 

Child therapy and child therapists alike are well versed in the causes of typical behavioral issues and can help remedy some of the common behaviors your child or adolescent displays. Counselors and therapists are educated in this type of work. Your therapy child will be in good hands with therapy child counseling.

If you decide to pursue treatment for your child, it can help prepare with some experiences and goals. 

What behavior is your therapy child displaying most? If your child struggles with anger management, find a therapist to assist. If your child struggles with opening up, find a counselor that can help with that. 

There is no award for “best child” when it comes to child therapy; the “best child” is one who feels healthy and taken care of, children and adolescents alike. Help find a child that feeling with the assistance of counselors and therapists. 

Different forms of counseling will benefit different people, so finding the proper therapy for child counseling is essential. Likewise, children and adolescents will respond differently to other child therapists. 

To benefit from counseling, ensure your child's therapy is specific to the child's needs. Find child-tailored care with the help of professional child therapists. 

How do you get your child into counseling?

“Child counselors near me” is a pretty standard search. When looking for a child therapist, you might not know where to begin or how to get your child into child therapy. You’re certainly not alone.

To find a child therapist who works for your family, consider asking for referrals or looking at reviews for different child psychologists. If you have multiple child psychologists in your area, it might be easier to get therapy child counseling using referrals. 

Ask your child’s pediatrician for recommendations, if need be, for children and adolescents alike. Child therapists might all have different forms of counseling, practices, and focuses for benefit from counseling. Find a child therapist that is right for your child. 

A therapy child might acknowledge the differences between counselors and therapists, how each professional interacts with them, and their preferences. The best child therapy experience will likely occur when your child can bond with a child therapist that they trust and one that can find a child the help they deserve to benefit from counseling fully. 

Strive to find a child counselor that can do that for you and your child. While it can take time, finding the best match for your situation is vital for long-term success.

It’s important to note that children and adolescents might not respond the same way to child therapists. Children and adolescents might even struggle with being told what to do by a child therapist or especially by their parents. 

Counselors and therapists alike will help any children and adolescents in their development, but getting your child or adolescent to agree to child therapy might be difficult. 

Being a therapy child can even feel embarrassing even to the best child. The individual who is the “best child” on the outside might feel as though something is wrong with them on the inside, in which case they might feel uncomfortable opening up to counselors and therapists. 

Any child or adolescent should feel cared for when finding a child counselor or finding a child therapist. If your child or adolescent pushes back on therapy child counseling, consider providing small incentives for attending child therapy. For example, an extra 15 minutes to play a game your child or adolescent likes or getting a favorite snack after the therapy child counseling. 

What does a child counselor do?

In general, a child therapist or child psychologist will help a young person learn how to talk about their feelings and suggest solutions to see the best child response for children and adolescents. 

Therapy child counseling might take a short amount of time, or therapy child counseling might take a long time, depending on your child’s needs. A child therapist will help you identify which behaviors need attention and what you can do to give the best child experience possible. 

That’s what child therapists (counselors and therapists) are for. The next thing to learn about is the different forms of counseling and the different benefit of counseling to fully understand child therapy when you try to find child help. 

Different forms of counseling will influence what child therapists do and how child therapy can help your situation. You might want to find a child counselor who focuses on behavioral issues, or you might want to find a child therapist who specializes in anxiety. You might even want to find a child counselor who focuses on speech pathology if your child struggles with their speech. 

There are so many different types of counselors and therapists who are professionals and can provide a unique benefit from counseling. Various forms of counseling can range depending on the therapy child counseling needs and on the response. 

For example, if a child or adolescent prefers to draw their feelings rather than expressing them verbally, you might try to find a child counselor who knows how to work with that. If a child or adolescent prefers to express their feelings with music, you might find a professional who can incorporate these elements into treatment.

Forms of counseling should not be limited to any therapy child. The best child therapy result will likely occur when the child or adolescent feels seen and heard. Find a child therapist that is right for your situation. That’s how to reap all the benefits from counseling. 

What is the difference between a child psychologist and a child therapist?

Child psychologists are similar to child therapists in many ways. Child psychologists and child therapists might identify the root of the problem and provide solutions for whatever the therapy child needs. 

That’s the first step towards helping your therapy child feel like the best child they can be. You can help find a child that inner peace, even after thinking of themselves as a therapy child, when you find a child therapist or find a child counselor that works well with them. 

Child therapy, child counseling, and other mental health services are often fundamental for producing long-term results for young people who live with mental illness.

However, child psychologists and child therapists are likely different when it comes to training. Child psychologists often have to earn a degree and study for years to practice therapy. 

In contrast, counselors and therapists might only need to earn a certification before becoming a child therapist. 

For that reason, child psychologists might also have more focused areas of study in which they can provide child therapy suited to a specific need. 

Even counselors and therapists have slight differences. Counselors and therapists might not be found in the same setting, for instance.

To find a child the perfect fit, consider what specific help they might need. Different therapy child counseling will offer different things, mainly depending on the child or adolescent. 

Different children and adolescents might not need as focused care, in which case you could find a child therapist. On the other hand, a therapy child might need more specific and intensive care, so rather than find a child counselor, you may need to find child psychologists. 

The best child outcome should be with the therapy child's needs in mind. It’s also important to note that child psychologists are not psychiatrists. Therefore, they will not be able to prescribe medications.