Understanding, Supporting, and Empowering Your Child
Helping children navigate emotional, behavioral, social, and family challenges with compassionate, age-appropriate therapy and support designed to help them feel understood, build healthy skills, and thrive.
Child Therapy in Utah
Children experience emotional, social, behavioral and family challenges just as adults do, but they don't always have the words or skills to explain what they're experiencing.
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When emotional or behavioral difficulties begin affecting a child's happiness, relationships, behavior, school performance or family life, professional support may help.
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Quality Youth Services provides child therapy in Utah for children and families experiencing a variety of emotional, behavioral and mental health concerns.
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With locations in Harrisville, Logan and Pleasant Grove, Quality Youth Services helps children and their families understand the challenges they're experiencing, develop useful coping skills, improve communication and work toward healthier behaviors and relationships.
When Should My Child See a Therapist?
Every child experiences difficult days. Occasional sadness, frustration, worry, anger or challenging behavior doesn't necessarily mean that a child needs counseling.
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Parents and caregivers may want to consider professional help when emotional or behavioral changes persist, become unusually intense or begin interfering with everyday life.
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Signs that it may be helpful to talk with a child therapist include:
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Persistent sadness or withdrawal
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Excessive worry, fears or anxiety
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Frequent anger or emotional outbursts
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Behavioral problems at home or school
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Difficulty controlling impulses
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Significant changes in personality or behavior
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Declining school performance
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Difficulty making or maintaining friendships
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Difficulty adjusting to divorce or family changes
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Grief following a significant loss
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Low self-esteem
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Difficulty coping with traumatic experiences
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School refusal or significant school anxiety
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Self-harming behaviors or concerning statements
Parents don't need to determine what's wrong before seeking help.
A qualified mental health professional can evaluate what's happening and help determine whether therapy or another type of mental health support may be appropriate.
What Can Child Therapy Help With?
Children can experience many of the same mental health and emotional difficulties adults experience, although symptoms may look very different.
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Quality Youth Services works with children and families dealing with a variety of concerns.
Anxiety in Children
Anxiety may cause children to worry excessively about school, friendships, family, separation, social situations or everyday events.
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Some children avoid situations that make them uncomfortable. Others may experience physical symptoms such as stomachaches, headaches, difficulty sleeping or feeling sick.
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Therapy can help children better understand anxious thoughts and emotions and learn healthier ways of responding to them.
Depression in Children
Childhood depression doesn't always appear as obvious sadness.
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Parents may notice irritability, withdrawal, loss of interest in activities, changes in sleeping or eating patterns, difficulty concentrating, low self-esteem or declining school performance.
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Therapy can provide children with a supportive environment for understanding and expressing difficult emotions while developing healthier coping skills.
ADHD
Children with ADHD may experience difficulties with attention, organization, impulsivity, emotional regulation or hyperactivity.
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These challenges can affect school, friendships and family relationships.
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Appropriate therapeutic and behavioral strategies can help children develop skills for managing these challenges while helping parents better understand and support their child.
Behavioral Problems
Frequent defiance, aggression, emotional outbursts, rule-breaking and other challenging behaviors can create stress for both children and families.
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Effective therapy looks beyond simply stopping an unwanted behavior.
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Understanding what's contributing to the behavior can help the child and family develop healthier ways of expressing emotions, communicating needs and responding to difficult situations.
Trauma and PTSD
Children may be affected by traumatic experiences involving abuse, neglect, violence, accidents, significant loss, family disruption or other frightening events.
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Trauma-informed mental health treatment provides an environment where children can receive support appropriate to their individual needs and developmental level.
How Does Child Therapy Work?
Child therapy isn't simply adult counseling provided to a younger person.
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Children communicate, process emotions and understand experiences differently depending upon their age, development, personality and circumstances.
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A therapist may therefore use different therapeutic approaches and activities based upon the child's needs.
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Treatment generally begins by learning more about the concerns that brought the child and family to therapy.
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This may include discussing:
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Current symptoms
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Emotional and behavioral concerns
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Family relationships
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School performance
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Friendships
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Significant life experiences
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Previous mental health treatment
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Strengths and interests
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Goals for treatment
This information helps the therapist, parents and child establish appropriate treatment goals.
Parents and Caregivers Are Part of the Process
Parents and caregivers can play an important role in child therapy.
They can provide information about behavior, routines, family relationships, school difficulties and changes they've noticed.
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Depending upon the child's age, circumstances and treatment plan, parents may participate in portions of therapy or receive recommendations they can use at home.
The purpose isn't to assign blame.
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The objective is to create a supportive environment in which the child, parents and therapist can work toward improving the child's emotional health and everyday functioning.
Child Therapy and Family Therapy
Some challenges are best addressed through individual child therapy.
Others involve communication, conflict, relationships or circumstances affecting the entire family.
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In those situations, family therapy may be recommended in addition to or instead of individual therapy.
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Family counseling can help improve communication, address conflict, establish healthier relationship patterns and help family members better support one another.
What Happens at My Child's First Therapy Appointment?
The first appointment gives the child, parents and therapist an opportunity to become acquainted and discuss the reasons the family is seeking help.
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The therapist may ask about:
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Current concerns
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When symptoms or behaviors began
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Family relationships
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School
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Friendships
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Medical and mental health history
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Previous counseling
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Significant life changes
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The child's strengths and interests
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Goals for therapy
Parents should also ask questions.
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Understanding how therapy works and feeling comfortable with the mental health professional are important parts of establishing a productive therapeutic relationship.
Child Therapy in Harrisville, Logan and Pleasant Grove
Quality Youth Services provides mental health services for children and families through three Utah locations.
Harrisville
Our Harrisville location provides access to mental health services for children and families in Harrisville, Ogden and surrounding northern Utah communities.
Logan
Our Logan location serves children and families in Logan, Cache Valley and surrounding communities.
Pleasant Grove
Our Pleasant Grove location provides mental health services for children and families in Pleasant Grove and surrounding Utah County communities.
Visit the individual Harrisville, Logan or Pleasant Grove location page to learn more.
Helping Your Child Move Forward
Children are continually developing emotionally, socially and psychologically.
Sometimes they need additional support navigating emotions, behaviors, relationships or experiences that have become difficult to manage.
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Therapy can give children an opportunity to express themselves, better understand their emotions, strengthen coping skills, improve relationships and develop skills they can continue using as they grow.
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If you're concerned about your child's emotional health or behavior, Quality Youth Services can help you determine an appropriate next step.