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Wtg Child And Family

Wtg Child And Family

To better serve the youngest members of our community and their families, WTG is excited to introduce our new Child and Family division.

WTG opened its doors to the vibrant Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg 8 years ago. As our community has grown over the years, we have come to recognize the increased need for progressive mental healthcare dedicated to families and children. While we have been treating children and families all along, we are now proud to offer a comprehensive child-centered program that includes play therapy, individual therapy with young children and adolescents, family therapy, and parent training and support. We also offer a neuropsychological testing program to help parents and teachers understand some of the behavioral and academic challenges children might be facing.

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Why seek therapy for your child or adolescent?

Parents may seek out treatment for their children for a myriad of reasons. Our psychologists work with children on any issue that may cause social or emotional distress in a childs life. Life adjustments such as a death or severe illness in the family, moving to a new home or school, parental separation and divorce can at times require the support of a therapist. Depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive behavior may also manifest in some children, and these are common precipitants for parents seeking treatment for their child. Social difficulties, poor self-esteem, behavioral problems, or experiencing a traumatic event can also be treated with the assistance of psychological intervention.

Struggles related to academic and developmental issues may also prompt parents to reach out for help. Learning difficulties and ADHD can significantly impact a childs performance at school and take a toll on their social relationships, self-esteem, and emotion regulation abilities.

Child Therapy

Our team of doctoral-level child psychologists and psychiatrists have training and experience in working with people of all ages, but our dedicated team at Williamsburg Therapy Group Child and Family has a unique skill-set in working with children, adolescents, and parents. Our psychologists and psychiatrists are experienced in working with children from diverse cultures, families, and backgrounds including children who have faced challenges including anxiety, mood disorders, disruptive behavior, poor social skills, eating disorders, impulse control disorders, psychosis, obsessive-compulsive disorder, trauma, adoption adjustment, gender and sexuality identity formation, self-harm, comorbid medical conditions, and suicidality.

There are many proven and effective modalities used in modern medicine to treat childhood psychological concerns. Our therapists utilize evidence-based best practices in combination with a genuine, warm, and playful approach. We achieve this by incorporating art, make-believe or games into sessions.

Therapy sessions take place in our newly constructed child therapy offices at our William Vale location in Brooklyn. Sessions typically involve work with the child alone, with the child and parent together, and with one or both parents without the presence of the child. In some circumstances, work with parents is more effective than individual therapy with a child. We have intentionally designed our new spaces to evoke a friendly and warm environment that is complemented by great views. While we believe in-office sessions are ideal, we also offer teletherapy sessions for children and families through our secure proprietary video-conferencing technology when travel to our offices is not convenient.

Therapy for Adolescents

Adolescence is a time of rapid physical change, self-discovery, and social challenge. Teenagers explore new parts of their identity, try on a range of behaviors, and experiment with their expanding independence. For many teenagers, it is a time of heightened emotions and insecurity, as their social environments can breed new pressures and confusion. For some, it can be a time of increased volatility and increased conflict with their parents. Therapy can offer adolescents a safe space to connect with a trusted adult and process their experience with the guidance of a trained professional. Therapy can also help adolescents navigate the challenges they find themselves facing more effectively.

CBT for Children

Cognitive behavioral therapy CBT is a type of therapy that focuses on how thoughts and emotions affect behavior. CBT helps children develop new coping mechanisms and change maladaptive thinking patterns that have been contributing to their difficulties. CBT has been empirically proven to help in treating a range of difficulties in children and provide them with tangible techniques to enhance coping and reduce distress. The psychologists at Williamsburg Therapy Group work with children using CBT to address issues including anxiety and mood disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder, impulsivity, behavioral problems, self-criticism, social anxiety, and emotion regulation difficulties.

Play Therapy for Young Children

Play therapy is an approach to psychotherapy designed specifically for young children. Since children often do not have adequate verbal language to understand or express the full range of their emotions, play therapy allows them to process their experience through the language most fluent to them, i.e. play. Williamsburg Therapy Group uses therapeutic play to communicate with the child and to observe the childs non-verbal expression. Our psychologists use theoretically-based approaches to play in order to facilitate healing from stressful experiences and to enhance coping skills and adaptive behavior.

Behavioral Interventions for Children

The psychologists at Williamsburg Therapy Group help clients implement specifically designed behavioral strategies to address a range of emotional and developmental issues. Some behavioral interventions for children include learning emotion regulation and impulse control techniques, relaxation and distraction strategies, and engaging in exposure techniques to manage phobic symptoms. Behavioral interventions promote new skillful behaviors and assist in extinguishing problematic behaviors by providing parents and children with new skills and techniques. The goal of this approach is to help children gain greater control over their emotions and behavior. Parents may also take part in the treatment, and receive targeted interventions such as learning how to respond to children in a consistent and predictable manner, gaining more effective reinforcement and punishment strategies, practicing positive communication skills, and behavior management techniques for ADHD.

Parent Training and Support

The psychologists at Williamsburg Therapy Group assist parents in addressing the unique challenges they face with their family or child. Parent therapy or coaching is helpful for parents who want to enhance their relationships with their child and gain greater insight into their childs functioning and behavior. Such work helps parents gain greater emotional attunement so that the childs needs are more effectively addressed and managed. It is also helpful for parents who are overwhelmed, feel unable to manage their child, or are embroiled in negative interactions or conflict with their child. Parent therapy will assist parents on a range of issues to bolster healthier family relationships, develop appropriate boundaries, create effective discipline strategies, and promote healthy development and self-esteem in their child. In addition, a child who is struggling may contribute to stress in the family and or add to strife between parents. We can assist you in more effectively dealing with parental conflict in order to promote greater health within the family system.

Neuropsychological Evaluation and Assessment

Each stage of childhood brings its own challenges and requires the development of a unique set of developmental skills. Some children struggle to master age-appropriate tasks, but how and why this happens is not always immediately apparent. Developmental difficulties can present as behavioral problems, academic issues, and or problems in peer or family relationships. When parents, teachers, or therapists notice that a child is struggling with a problem of an unclear origin, neuropsychological evaluation and assessment can help.

The neuropsychological evaluations at Williamsburg Therapy Group are individually tailored to each child. The assessment is designed to provide a comprehensive view of a childs life in both their internal and external worlds. An in-depth battery of structured assessments is utilized to help illuminate and clarify the childs brain functioning and its interaction with the childs environment. Depending on the reason for the assessment, measures may include interviews with parents and teachers, observations of the child in relevant contexts, and standardized tests and tasks that assess the child s cognitive skills and functioning.

The goal of a neuropsychological evaluation is to provide information about the specific components that are impacting the child and to provide recommendations for addressing these issues.

Areas of functioning that are examined by these measures are Intellectual abilities:

  • Attention
  • Executive functions e.g., planning, organization, abstraction, and conceptualization.
  • Language
  • Memory
  • Effort and motivation
  • Academic skills and achievement
  • Problem solving
  • Neuropsychological testing can also help identify the presence of underlying disorders including

Learning Disabilities

  • ADHD
  • Traumatic brain injury
  • Emotional functioning
  • Behavioral functioning

ADHD

A neuropsychological assessment may be warranted to better understand if your child has symptoms of ADHD, for instance in children who have displayed a persistent pattern of inattention, hyperactivity, behavioral problems, impulsivity, or problems with executive functioning skills including memory, problem solving, and planning organization. ADHD makes it difficult for children to control their behavior and it can impact childrens self-regulation, frustration tolerance, and self-esteem. Specific assessment for ADHD helps to clarify if an ADHD diagnosis can help make sense of a childs difficulties. Using a standardized set of tests and procedures, the neuropsychologist at Williamsburg Therapy Group will determine if the condition is present for your child and provide recommendations for how best to move forward.

Learning Disability

A learning disability involves persistent difficulties in comprehending or processing information and often causes impairment in academic achievement or functioning. When a child has significant problems at school, challenges with learning, or struggles to meet educational goals, a neuropsychological assessment can provide pertinent information about the nature of these challenges. A neuropsychological evaluation can establish whether there is a diagnosis such as a specific Learning Disability math, reading, writing, Dyslexia, or Processing Disorder. The neuropsychologist at Williamsburg Therapy Group will conduct an individually designed battery of standardized tests to establish and clarify the nature of your childs learning disability and whether they meet criteria for a learning disorder. In addition, a written report of findings, impressions, and recommendations will be provided. If necessary, information and documentation needed to make formal requests for accommodations will also be provided.

Child Psychiatry

Deciding to pursue psychopharmacological intervention for your child can sometimes be a difficult decision. Our psychiatrists are specifically trained to judiciously and thoughtfully assess whether medication could be of benefit. They will work with you to ensure you understand the options and will remain closely involved in your childs course of treatment.

Family Therapy

Families are an integral part of our lives. Though family can be where our closest relationships started, it can also be difficult and overwhelming to address negative patterns, hurt, and conflict that can develop over the years. Family therapy can help develop the ability to effectively communicate, work through conflicts, and strengthen relationships with others

What is family therapy?

Family therapy is when family members attend therapy together in order to improve their relationships and functioning. The members of the family who attend is not predetermined, and reasons for seeking family therapy can include.

  • Parents learning to collaborate and co-parent
  • Increasing structure and support for children struggling with emotional and behavioral issues
  • Families affected by trauma
  • Siblings hoping to address conflict and increase closeness and communication
  • Changes in family roles and power dynamics

As fellow New Yorkers with their own families, the providers at the Williamsburg Therapy Group understand first-hand the need for inclusion and the beauty of diversity, including our concept of who counts as family. Our providers have experience working with a wide variety of families, including those with LGBTQIA members, children and adolescents with a range of emotional and behavioral struggles, and families with diverse cultural and spiritual backgrounds. By providing a safe, structured, and collaborative space, families can learn new ways to address dysfunctional patterns and improve closeness and trust.