Therapy to Improve Children’s Mental Health

Explore Options to help children struggling with mental health to function well at home, in school, and in their community.

Treating Mental Health

Mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders in childhood can cause long-term problems that may affect the health and well-being of children, families, and communities. Treating a child’s mental health problems as soon as possible can help children reduce problems at home, in school, and in forming friendships. It can also help with healthy development into adulthood.
A public health approach to children’s mental health includes promoting mental health for all children, providing preventive intervention to children at risk, and providing treatment for children with identified disorders. Psychological therapy is a key component to improving mental health. Depending on the type and severity of the problems, psychological therapy for children may be used in combination with medication.

A Brief Overview of Therapy for Adolescents

Psychological therapy is meant to treat a mental health condition or help a child manage their symptoms so that they can function well at home, in school, and in their community.

When children are young, it is common for therapy to include the parent. Sometimes therapists work with the parents alone. Older children may meet with a therapist alone as well. Some types of therapy include working with the whole family or other important adults in the child’s life (for example, a teacher).

Parent-focused approaches typically mean that parents talk with the therapist about the child’s behavior and feelings. Psychological therapy with children can include talking, playing, or other activities to help the child express feelings and thoughts. Therapists may also observe parents and children together and then make suggestions for finding different ways to react.

Psychological therapy for children can be done one-on-one or in groups. Sometimes, a combination of therapies is the most effective for helping a child.

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Common Therapies for Children

Behavior Therapy

Behavior therapy teaches children and their families how to strengthen positive child behaviors and eliminate or reduce unwanted or problem behaviors.
One type is parent training in behavior management. The therapist works with parents to learn or improve skills to manage their child’s behavior. Parents are encouraged to practice the skills with their child, either during the therapy session or at home. Teachers can also be trained in behavior management to help the child at their childcare center or school.
With older children or adolescents, the therapist usually works directly with the child to teach them how to choose positive behaviors. Parents can be involved to support and strengthen the skills their child is learning.

What is Cognitive-Behavior Therapy?

Cognitive-behavior therapy focuses on changing the thoughts and emotions that can affect a child’s behavior negatively.

The therapist helps the child become aware of their thoughts and feelings. The therapist also helps the child evaluate if feelings or thoughts may be distorted or illogical, and then helps the child through the process of changing the thoughts as well as the emotional reactions and behaviors that go along with them.

Cognitive-behavior therapy often works directly with the child, but can also include parents.

For the most common childhood conditions, like ADHD, behavior disorders, anxiety, or depression, approaches using behavior therapy and cognitive-behavior therapy are more likely to reduce symptoms, but there is limited information about which type of therapy is best for treating each specific childhood mental disorder.

More Things to Consider Regarding Children’s Therapy:

Parent training in behavior management works well for:

  • ADHD; and
  • Disruptive behavior disorders.

Child behavior therapy works well for:

  • ADHD; and
  • Disruptive behavior disorders.

Cognitive-behavior therapy works well for:

  • Disruptive behavior disorder;
  • Depression;
  • Anxiety; and
  • PTSD.

Additional types of therapy can be effective for adolescents:

  • Adolescents with disruptive behavior disorder may respond well to family therapy, an approach that includes multiple members of the family and focuses on learning better communication skills and ways to settle conflicts.
  • Adolescents with depression may respond well to interpersonal psychotherapy, an approach in which the therapists help the adolescents learn ways to handle relationship problems.

Other therapy approaches may also be effective but have not been studied enough for researchers to understand if they work well. Information on what works best for which family is also still limited.

Finding the Right Therapy for Your Child

Therapy is most effective if it fits the needs of the specific child and family. You can talk to your child’s healthcare provider as a first step. Sometimes, health problems such as poor sleep, trouble breathing, poor vision, difficulty hearing, or learning problems can cause behavioral or emotional symptoms, or make them worse. Your child’s healthcare provider may want to find out if your child has any health problems before referring your child for therapy.
Before starting therapy, a mental health provider typically conducts a comprehensive evaluation of your child’s mental health to figure out what type of therapy might work best.

Here are some tools to help find a healthcare provider familiar with treatment options:

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