Child Counseling

Bringing wellness to your 9-12 year old

Sometimes children need a little help as they exit childhood and start to enter that awkward in-between phase. These are your 9-12 year olds. They are too old to be thought of as little kids but not old enough to be teens. They are our tweens. During this time, your child is entering puberty which brings significant physical, emotional, and behavioral changes. As a parent you might be feeling confused and nervous as your child begins to make these changes. Your child might be starting to:

· take more risks

· become more rebellious

· change their sleep habits

· bend the rules more

· abruptly change hobbies

· switch friends

· care about "fitting in"

· pay more attention to their physical appearance

· seek outside role models

· take romantic interest in peers

· experiment with different social scenes

With so much change, this can feel like a scary time for you and your child. You might be worried about protecting your child-parent relationship or keeping your child on a positive path. Your child might also start experiencing signs of anxiety as they try to navigate friendships during this in-between phase. Seeking therapeutic services might be helpful if you notice major personality changes, mood shifts, or change of behavior in your child.

Our Approach

WellNest Counseling is here to support you through this transient time. We use play therapy and activity therapy depending on the developmental level of your kiddo and your goals. Play is a child’s natural language. It is how they process and integrate their understanding of the world. As kids grow, they start to enter into activity therapy. This approach is a more directive and your skilled therapists will plan fun and safe activities to work on and meet therapeutic goals. Each activity is intentional and with purpose. We believe you are the expert on your kiddo and we are the expert in child development. You will receive parent support along side your child’s individual therapy. We will work together to meet your goals.

What a session will look like

Our sessions are 45-55 minutes long. When you and your kiddo arrive, parents may wait in our comfortable waiting room. Your clinician will meet you and your child in the waiting room to take your child back to the therapy room. During each session, your child and clinician will be playing games and doing activities that are intentional and purposeful according to your needs as a family. At WellNest we believe that child therapy is most successful when we are working with the whole family. Your therapist may suggest doing a family session or sibling sessions to better understand the family as a unit. Families are the first relationships people form, thus they are important. Parents will receive parenting support a long the therapeutic journey in the form of parent consultations. Parent consultations tend to happen about once a month. This is the parent's time to ask questions, gain insight to their child, and learn tips and tricks the help bring wellness back to your nest.