Play Therapy & Counseling
Our child therapist offers play therapy, which is a unique blend of creating a safe and trusting environment for your child to engage comfortably. There are many therapeutic toys, games, and activities to choose from which invites your child to engage while our counselor interacts with your child. Many times, direct talk therapy will not work with a child because they are too young to sustain a meaningful conversation about why you brought them to us. The goal is to help your child work through the reason why you brought him/her to us.
Neal Psychological Specialties has both a child psychologist and child counselor who specialize in these areas of child counseling:
- Child Anxiety
- Child Depression
- Child Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
- Child Oppositional Defiant Disorder
- Child Sexual Abuse
- Child School Refusal
If a teen is highly resistant and refuses to engage, our counselor will sensitively respect the teen's decision to not engage in counseling at that time. There will be no judgment nor pressure to make your teen talk. Our team member will reaffirm that they are not a third parent, an academic dean, or policeman. In other words, your teen’s counselor is not an “enforcer” but rather a safe haven where anything can be discussed and a solution can be sought.
Sometimes, a counselor will end the session early, in the hope that the teen will leave feeling respected, heard, not pressured. Hopefully, your teen will come to view their counselor as a person to trust and discuss what is on their mind. Many times this leads to a future session with less resistance.
Our team is committed to coordinating with all the various professionals and treatment services you’ve experienced. We can help you make sense of all past tests, assessments and reports you have already paid for, without repeating any testing. Most importantly, we can wade through the medical jargon and help you understand what needs to be done for you or your family member.