Therapy for Children Ages 8 and Older
Children don't always have the words for what's wrong. Anxiety shows up as stomachaches and school refusal. Depression looks like irritability or withdrawal. Behavioral problems often have emotional roots that neither the child nor their parents can fully see. We offer therapy for children ages 8 and older, working with families to understand what's driving the difficulty — and to build the skills to address it.
What Brings Families to Us
Anxiety
Anxiety is the most common mental health concern in childhood. It takes many forms: separation anxiety that makes drop-off a daily battle, generalized worry that never fully quiets, social anxiety that leads to avoidance of peers, and specific fears that have grown too big to manage alone. Children with anxiety often express it through physical complaints — headaches, stomachaches, fatigue — rather than through worry they can name.
School Avoidance
Refusing or struggling to attend school is one of the most disruptive presentations in childhood. It's almost always emotionally driven — most often by anxiety, but sometimes by depression, social difficulty, or conflict at school. The longer a child is out of the school environment, the harder re-entry becomes. Early, consistent intervention matters.
Depression and Mood
Depression in children frequently doesn't look like adult sadness. More often it presents as irritability, low frustration tolerance, withdrawal from activities and friends, or a pervasive flatness. Children may not be able to explain what's wrong — they just know something is. Left unaddressed, childhood depression tends to persist and intensify through adolescence.
ADHD and Attention Difficulties
Attention difficulties affect learning, relationships, and self-esteem well before a formal diagnosis is made. We address the real-world impacts of inattention and impulsivity — at school, at home, and socially — and work with families to build structures and strategies that reduce friction and support success.
Behavioral Concerns
Oppositional behavior, emotional outbursts, and difficulty following rules are common referral concerns. These behaviors are rarely meaningless — they usually signal an underlying emotional struggle the child doesn't yet have the skills to express or manage. We treat behavior in context, not in isolation.
How We Work
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT is the most evidence-supported treatment for anxiety and depression in children. It's structured and skill-focused: children learn to identify the thoughts driving their distress, test whether those thoughts are accurate, and practice facing situations they've been avoiding. For anxiety in particular, gradual exposure — learning that feared situations are survivable — is the core mechanism of change.
Supportive Therapy
Not every child needs a highly structured intervention. Supportive therapy builds the therapeutic relationship that makes any work possible, helps children develop emotional vocabulary and self-awareness, and provides a consistent, non-judgmental space to process difficulty. For some children, being heard clearly and consistently is itself therapeutic.
Parent Involvement
Children don't improve in isolation from their families. Parents are partners in treatment — not just observers. We help parents understand what drives their child's behavior, coach more effective responses to anxiety and distress, and build home environments that support the skills their child is developing in therapy. For younger children especially, the work with parents is often as important as the work with the child.