Therapy Options

KidsMentalHealth.org is a great place to start when considering family therapy or if you have questions about how therapy can help you or if you wanted to have family therapy. There are many pages on the website but here are a few we found to be useful:

•  The Interpersonal Therapy for Children with Behavioral and Emotional Disorders page gives reasons for why you may start going to interpersonal therapy. While this specific page seems to be focused on younger children with behavioral problems, any adolescent with behavioral or emotional disorders can benefit from therapy. Interpersonal therapy can help with depression. This page gives information and questions to ask yourself when picking out a therapist.
• The Cognitive Therapy for Children with Behavioral and Emotional Disorders page explains what cognitive behavioral therapy is, and why it can be helpful. This page is again mainly geared towards children with behavioral problems, but it also specifies it can be used to treat depression. Cognitive behavioral therapy has a focus on thought processes and has the most evidence for helping with depression and anxiety.
• The How is Mental Illness in Children Diagnosed page explains how mental illness in children is diagnosed. It also stresses the importance of treatment, and explains ADHD and anxiety.
• The How is Mental Illness in Children Treated page has links that explain other mental illnesses, like ADHD, OCD, and ODD. It also explains many different types of therapy: like art therapy, animal assisted therapy, and play therapy.

Did this website help you have a clearer understanding of options for therapy? Has you or your family tried any of these approaches? Tell us about your experiences! 

If you could try one of the other therapy options like art or animal assisted, what do you think would be most helpful for you?