What are Mental Health Services?

CBT highlights the connection between emotions, thoughts, and behaviors.  As this connection is learned, kids and teens can begin to identify and choose more helpful thoughts and behaviors, in ways that bring positive emotional changes.  CBT also teaches helpful coping skills that replace unhelpful coping, and builds the ability for solving problems. CBT is at the heart of several therapy modalities, including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT); Behavioral activation; Cognitive Behavioral Play Therapy (CBPT); Dialectical Behavioral Therapy  (DBT); Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP); Modular Approach to Therapy for Children with Anxiety, Depression, Trauma and/or Conduct (MATCH-ADTC); Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions (SPACE); and Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT). 

ACT teaches children and teens how to notice and accept uncomfortable thoughts and emotions while remaining in the present moment and behaving in ways that fit with their personal values. The goal of ACT is to empower kids and teens to drive their own “car,” and allow those uncomfortable thoughts and feelings to be passengers that give information, without steering or driving the “car.”

Through behavioral activation, kids and teens recognize the connection between actions, thoughts, and emotions; and learn how to use enjoyable activities to lessen symptoms of depression, and to increase the positive thoughts and emotions that typically go along with fun activities.  

DBT-informed therapy is structured therapy that focuses on teaching children and teens five core skills: mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotional regulation, interpersonal effectiveness, and walking-the-middle-path.  

ERP is a specialized form of CBT, developed to treat obsessive-compulsive and anxiety disorders.  It works to slowly and safely allow kids and teens to have exposure to their fears, while working to stop the compulsive or anxious response that these fears have brought them in the past. 

MATCH-ADTC is a set of CBT-based approaches that can be applied to multiple mental health issues in a single, flexible system.  Sometimes children and teens have more than one issue to be addressed in therapy.  MATCH-ADTC  allows therapists to address multiple  presenting issues and concerns,  using a customized approach for each individual child or teen.

SPACE is a form of treatment where a therapist works with the parents of a child who is struggling with anxiety or OCD.  In SPACE, parents work to adjust the way they respond to anxious behaviors in their children to provide support in a manner that gradually allows their child to cope more effectively with anxiety.

TF-CBT is a short-term treatment for children and teens who have experienced trauma.  Through individual sessions and joint sessions with parents, children and teens can process traumatic events and reduce trauma-associated symptoms, while parents learn how to support their child through this process.

Play therapy encompasses many treatment strategies that utilize the therapeutic powers of play.  Play is the natural way a child interacts with the world as well as a child’s primary language. Play therapy allows children to find ways of coping with uncomfortable emotions, to tackle fears and anxiety, and to find their own solutions for their problems.  Several other treatment methods use play therapy at their core. Examples include Cognitive Behavioral Play Therapy (CBPT) and DIRFloortime®.

In CBPT, children are empowered to take an active role in creating changes and solving their problems, through play.  CBPT is a strengths-based approach that uses the basic principles of CBT in a developmentally appropriate way. 

DIR® is the Developmental, Individual-differences, and Relationship-based model. This play-based approach  highlights the power of relationships and emotional connections to fuel development.

The Circle of Security aims to help strengthen the relationship between caregivers and their children, and to help promote secure attachment.

Mindfulness is an evidence-based practice that teaches children and teens to pay attention to the present moment fully, without judging or evaluating it, and accept it as it comes.  Practicing mindfulness can interrupt the cycles of anxiety and rumination, improve emotional regulation, lower stress, and build impulse control.  Mindfulness is frequently used as a part of or alongside other therapies. 

The Organizational Skills Training program helps kids, teens, and their families build skill sets related to their executive functioning.  This approach was specifically developed for ADHD and can be used to help other children and teens who have difficulty related to executive functioning.

Parents can work with a therapist to develop behavioral strategies, such as structuring the home environment for success, changing parenting  responses to decrease challenging behaviors, and  modeling  and teaching skills to help with  emotional regulation, expressing wants and needs in a helpful way,  and coping with difficulties.