Mental and emotional health is an important part of any life, and crucial for healthy child development. The good news is that the stigma is starting to go away, and now about 10% of children in the US receive counseling in any given year.
While progress is being made, there are still quite a few obstacles to overcome. For instance, white children get treatment at higher rates than non-white children, and boys are treated at higher rates than girls.
Hopefully, access to mental healthcare increases, because there are many benefits to counseling for children. We’ll discuss some of these benefits in this article.
Help Processing Emotions
Being a child is hard, and the issues and emotional turmoil people deal with as children often affect them into adulthood. Learning to process and deal with our emotions at a young age can help us become better-adjusted adults.
It also teaches them that speaking to a counselor or seeking other professional help can make things easier to deal with. This might make them more likely to seek professional help in the future.
Recognizing Mental Illness
It’s not often that we see mentally ill children in the media, even though there are several mental health conditions that often affect children. The most common conditions among both adults and children are anxiety disorders and depressive disorders.
People often notice these conditions during their teen years, but they’re usually present before then. As with emotions, the earlier someone learns about their mental health conditions, the sooner they can learn to cope with them, and the better the results often are.
Improved Family Dynamic
Counseling for children can also mean counseling for families. This is a good thing because family counseling can help the members of a family understand each other better. It’s a place where everyone can be honest and speaks their minds on a level playing field.
At home, children might be reluctant to talk to their parents about some things for fear of upsetting them. Counseling gives everybody a chance to speak in a place where nobody will interrupt or argue.
Perspective
Studies in the UK have found that about 10% percent of kids between the ages of ten and 15 report being lonely a lot. This seems to affect younger kids more. Surveys report roughly 14% loneliness in kids 10-12, while 8% of older kids reported it.
Going to therapy can help a child learn that they’re not alone and that other people are dealing with similar problems. Having someone to relate to can make it much easier to manage our mental health.
Benefits of Counseling for Children
Children’s counseling can be a great way to help our kids deal with the world. We’ve talked about some of the ways your child might benefit from counseling in this article. Everyone has a different experience, though, and people can come out healthier in ways they didn’t expect.
You can learn more about our child, family, and other counseling & therapy services here:
- Individual Counseling
- Anxiety Counseling
- Depression Counseling
- Teen Counseling
- Child Counseling
- Family Counseling
- Group Counseling
- Couples Counseling
We can even help you get started here on the path to mental healthcare and offer a free consultation.
Honor Your Emotions provides professional counseling & therapy services in Dublin, CA and serves the East Bay Area including Pleasanton, San Ramon, Livermore and Danville.
Our practice also provides online counseling & therapy sessions for new clients and residents across the state of California.
