Counselling for Children and Youth

Counselling for children and youth is an effective way of achieving improvement for a number of issues. Parents seek counselling for children and youth due to such issues as anxiety, mood management, acting out, defiance, school refusal, difficulties with peer relationships, or addictions among others. Counselling can help children and youth with these and other issues.

Counselling for Children and Youth: Parents and Teachers’ Understanding of the Issue

A child or youths ability to understand and describe his or her own experiences and feelings ranges dramatically. Understanding the issues brought for counselling, therefore, involves gathering information from a number of sources, most importantly parents but also schools or other helping professionals. Often teenagers and kids are referred for counselling by parents or teachers, so the child or youth’s understanding of the issues is variable. A child and youth’s interest in participating in counselling is variable as well.

Counselling for Children and Youth: Building Engagement is a Priority

Increasing children and youths’ interest in participating in counselling involves building engagement, rapport, and trust. Increasing a child or youth’s interest in counselling involves demonstrating that counselling will benefit them. Showing the benefits of counselling happens when a child or youth leaves counselling feeling better and more hopeful about improving his or her situation.

Counselling for Children and Youth: Changes in the Home and School Environment to Achieve Improvement

While treatment methods, such as CBT counselling, pet therapy, progressive relaxation and mindfulness, achieve improvement, improvement is largely achieved outside counselling for children and youth. A child's functioning and well-being are highly influenced by family and school environment and so the issue cannot be understood separate from these environments. Some of the most effective methods used in counselling for children and youth involve working within the child's environment. For instance, Multi-Systemic Therapy (MST) identifies external factors influencing an issues and attempts to change these factors. Many inpatient treatment programs try to create a therapeutic milieu by teaching and encouraging strategies throughout the day when opportunities arise. Therefore counselling for children and youth is often about creating a plan which is implemented in the child's day-to-day activities by parents or teachers.

You can also read more about my Counselling Skills and background as a Child and Youth Counsellor which allow me to provide these counselling services.

Ryan is also an Anti-Bullying Motivational Speaker - presentations to inspire students to stand up against bullying in schools, as well as a Guest Speaker for a variety of other topics. He travels any distance but will speak in Kitchener, Guelph, Hamilton, London, Toronto, Mississauga, Barrie, Markham, St. Catharines, Milton, Oakville, Burlington, Stratford, Owen Sound, Oshawa, Ottawa, Windsor, Kingston, New Market.