Child Psychologists and Child Therapists in North Castle, NY.

Children talk through play, it is their language. I use play therapy to connect with your child and help them develop coping skills that they will take with them throughout their lives. I will also give you some tools and tips to practice at home. Together, we will work through whatever your child may be going through. My number one priority is to make sure that you and your child feel comfortable and safe.

When working with kids, it is important to take into account multiple facets, such as their developmental level, the family dynamics, parenting support, and psycho-education. When working with the clients that are younger, I work with them using Art Therapy, Therapeutic Play Techniques, story-telling, and parenting support to be able to work with the client and the family to meet their goals. I have been able to work with younger children, ages 3-21, for most of my career, working on building relationships, learning coping skills, and being able to work through various mental and behavioral concerns.

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

When I work with kids. I create a safe space for them to explore, feel in control, and build skills. I include parents with regular communication and at home techniques when needed. For working with children, I like to incorporate play and art as it makes therapeutic concepts and learning more accessible and relatable. I am comfortable using play therapy techniques without extending past my scope of practice. Art embraces visual, kinesthetic, and sensory parts of the brain which kids are more in tuned with, in comparison to adults. I adjust my language and use metaphors to make therapy age-appropriate.

My approach to counseling children (ages 11 and up) begins with family therapy to determine to what extent parents need to be involved. I establish trust and a safe environment for children to enable them to share their issues and concerns. I also work with parents to help them understand their children's needs and develop an environment conducive to meeting those needs.

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.

children and adolescents are at a different developmental stage than adults and sometimes have a hard time feeling comfortable expressing themselves. This is when they are trying to figure out who they are and learning how to safely express themselves. The family can also be involved in their child's therapeutic process and have concerns to work on as well.

Many times, child therapists overdo the family system in their quest to seek effective solutions for emotional, learning or behavioral concerns with young children. And many times doctors overpathologize issues that shouldn’t be medicated necessarily. This leaves parents wondering what is the best route for their child? Introducing brainwave optimization technology. A fast, effective, natural, and less expensive way to allow your child's brain to make the optimizing changes it desires to make---on its own! Without any external force, opinion, medication, diagnostic, etc. Contact kevin@kevinflemingphd.com or 877-606-6161.

Currently there are very few providers supporting who we lovingly call "the littles" of our community. This is the 10 and under demographic. Children start to experience stressors earlier and earlier and as the veil of childhood innocence falls they need help coping. Connecting with a professional early on can help out littles make sense of the world. We also provide family and parental coaching to handle challenging behaviors. We incorporate play, art, and music into our work.

Children are a gift and a treasure. It never surprises me to hear something utterly unique come from one of my young clients. As a therapist I look to the strengths of the child and the family. I utilize play therapy and structural family therapy to help untangle difficult and challenging subject matter. Often times the child knows and reveals so much about the family and the special ways in which the family interacts with one another. One of the benefits of working with children in therapy is that I am able to identify with the child and family areas to strengthen and support. I work to encourage parents to be advocates and partners in setting clear rules, boundaries and consequences.

When a child is presented for treatment barring organic causes, the first question one asks, " Who has the problem?" Is it the child, parents, school or the interactions of all?" After interviewing the child and parents (conducted in both family and individual sessions), I present the parents with an evaluation. Dependent on the severity of the child's problems and the ability of the parents to mobilize their parenting skills, it is decided to address the presenting problems with individual sessions as well as family sessions. My attempt is to minimize the treatment of the child and enable the parents to learn to parent through "Creative Loving" (a program that Dr. PItta created).

Working with children ages five and up who are experiencing bullying, social alienation, learning difficulties, self esteem corrosion, and conflicted feelings related to divorce, is a primary focus of my 30+ years of clinical practice. Age appropriate sessions involve both talk play and artistic therapeutic techniques while providing practical tools for effective communication. In a collaborative partnership I include the parents, teaching them effective parenting strategies for each unique child. My goal is to educate parents to become change leaders in their homes. My objective is to provide the family with the skills and tools to achieve ongoing success in their home environment.

Often times children are struggling with issues in their own life and cannot communicate their need for help. It is a parent's job to recognize when something is not right. Helping children identify problems and work through them is a skill that lasts a lifetime. My work with children is based on trust. Only when they feel safe will they begin to reveal their inner thoughts and fears. This is achieved mainly through play therapy and parent child sessions.