Child Psychologists and Child Therapists in Baxter Estates, NY.

Children are our future and we want to make sure we can do everything to help them to be happy, healthy, well-adjusted individuals. At Mars and Venus Counseling Center, we see children and their parents as young as one year old. Our services include: effective parenting techniques for your child’s unique personality, anger management, behavior modification, divorce support, anxiety, depression, overcoming fears, social development, and issues at school. Depending on the age of the child, we often incorporate play therapy to communicate with children in their own language. We use puppets, dolls, clay, drawing, as well as a variety of therapy games to help children identify what is upsetting

Sometimes knowing what your child needs in a difficult moment can be hard. At Family Guiding, we specialize in helping children with ADHD, aggressive, impulsive behavior and anxiety. We guide children towards appropriate ways to express feelings, cope with frustration and manage anxiety. We also work closely with parents and will help you use effective communication and discipline strategies with your child as well as increase peaceful and positive interactions.

Small children aged 3 to 8 typically do not participate in family therapy because the vast majority of therapists consider such children too young to articulate their feelings or understand complex patterns of behavior. Butler thinks otherwise, as she perfects her skills using an approach called narrative therapy. Often described as “post-modern,” narrative therapy allows clients to put away old, tired versions of the stories they tell themselves [and everybody else] about their lives. Playing more to the clients’ strengths than their weaknesses, the approach urges clients to see themselves as much more than the presenting problem and to identify ways in which they are already taking steps

Having a troubled child can be very upsetting, whether the child seems worried, sad, angry, or oppositional. My work focuses on alleviating the child's suffering as well as helping the parent learn strategies to feel more effective in dealing with their child's problems. In helping young children, I usually work with the child (through talking therapy and/or play therapy,) the parent (through exploring behavioral and communication strategies) and the parent-child relationship (through assisting the family members to communicate better and collaborate on solutions to the problems.) My approach is eclectic and includes psychodynamic, behavioral and cognitive behavioral elements.

We all have one common goal for our children, we want them to be happy. My work with parents and children include: provide emotion coaching for the parent and child strengthen the marital relationship in order to provide a model for healthy communication and stress management explore the impact of the parents' own childhood struggles on their capacity to parent effectively create an atmosphere where the parent and child feel respected, understood and validated improve parental understanding of their child's development designing effective behavior plans for increasing a child's positive emotions experiences and behavior

I have a doctorate in child psychology, and have been a school psychologist, both diagnosing learning problems and doing counseling. I work closely with the parents, and in many cases would not treat the child directly. I usually focus on and get to know the parent, how I can best support them as a parent, as a spouse, and as a person in the world. And, I work with parents so that we are a team together helping you to do the best thing for your child or children.

I offer counseling typically to children 12+ If the child is younger than 12, and needs support for entering middle school, or peer/ social skills with my experience K-12, and graduate school age, please inquire re: need! As a family or with a sibling I would treat younger as well. As always just inquire with more information on how I can assist !