Child and Adolescent Counselling

At Strategic Psychology we offer a range of psychological services specific for children and adolescents. We understand that as children and adolescents grow and change, their needs will be very different. Our trained child psychologists are sensitive to development across the lifespan, and your individual child’s journey through growth. We offer services aimed at an appropriate level for your child, wherever that may be.

Many different challenges are faced during childhood and adolescents, each child will react to these and will experience these differently. For some children and adolescents, when faced with difficulties, they may withdraw from social activities, become quieter and show signs of depression. For other children and adolescents they may become loud and display challenging behaviours, acting aggressively or argumentatively in response to difficulties. If you notice any changes in your child or adolescent, the way in which they interact with you, their peers or other adults, their performance in school, or anything of concern counselling with a trained psychologist may help them to cope with some of the difficulties faced. Some of the warning signs to watch out for when your child or adolescent may not be coping with challenges the best they could include:

If you or your child or adolescent are concerned about how they are coping with some of the challenges they are facing, seeing a psychologist can help to develop coping strategies to better manage these.

A psychologist can help children or adolescents to deal with many of the different challenges faced during these times. Common difficulties faced by children and adolescents can include:

Seeing a psychologist can help you to identify areas which are causing problems in your life and work on strategies to better manage these problems, or to cope with problems which are outside of your control. Seeing a psychologist can help you to develop the skills to become more resilient throughout your life.

You can contact Strategic Psychology either via phone, email or by dropping in to our office in person to make an appointment to see one of our trained and experienced child psychologists. We will ask you a few quick questions at this time to ensure you are best matched with the psychologist and service within our practice that will best suit your needs.

After making your initial appointment we will provide you with a confirmation letter of your appointment, this is normally completed via email. This confirmation letter will outline your appointment time, who your psychologist will be, our fees and details of the Medicare rebates available to assist you.

When you attend our offices for your first appointment, it is normal to feel uncomfortable or anxious about speaking to us at first. Talking to new people and going to new places can always be challenging and talking about issues which are bothering you can be difficult at times. Our psychologists focus on treating you with the respect, dignity and understanding you deserve to ensure you are comfortable with discussing your challenges and difficulties. Your psychologist will help you to understand your problems, how they have arisen, and how to manage them more effectively.

When counselling children and adolescents it is important to include parents and caregivers in the process to ensure the child is supported as much as they can. However, it is also important for the child or adolescent to have their own space in which to discuss their challenges away from the family. Your psychologist will work with your family, finding a balance that best suits your needs to ensure your child or adolescent is able to have a space that is just for themselves to discuss their issues, whilst still keeping parents and caregivers involved to provide additional support.

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