“But it is my job to protect my child and ensure that s/he is happy. How can I bring him/her in for therapy?”
“What will people think of my parenting if my child needs therapy?”
These and many such questions are often encountered by parents who are struggling with the thought of bringing their children in for therapy. Here are a few things you, as a parent needs to know to ensure your child gets the help s/he needs when s/he needs it.
1. Bringing your child in for therapy does not mean you are failing as a parent.
No one person is the same. So what worked for you as a child or what works for your sisters kids, might not necessarily work for your kids. You, as a parent, wanting to help your child any way you want, shows success and not failure as a parent.
2. It is not about you, it is about the child
This is very important to understand. Whether or not your child needs therapy has nothing to do with how it will reflect on you. It is not about you. It is not about what others will think of you. It is about what the child needs and how to best ensure that the child gets what s/he needs.
3. Younger the better
At our clinic, we really wish that you would bring in your children when they are little mostly because it is so easy to mold a child at a younger age than later. Also, the formative years are so crucial that ensuring your child has a way to deal with his or her emotions should become a priority. Often children experience or see or hear something that is traumatic and sometimes they don’t even know that what they experienced is a trauma. Leaving those feelings untreated could result in a lot of unresolved conflicts and questions that the child might carry in to adulthood.
