What You'll Learn
The Types of Child and Adolescent Therapy:
Discover how Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), Play Therapy, and more can support different challenges.
How to Choose the Right Therapy:
Get tips on evaluation, asking the right questions, and matching therapy methods to your child’s needs and personality.
Benefits of Each Approach:
Understand how techniques like CBT or Family Therapy can boost communication, improve behavior, and reduce anxiety or depression.
Early Intervention and Coordination:
Find out why getting help early and coordinating with pediatricians, schools, or community resources can make therapy more effective.
Practical Steps for Families:
Learn about gaining actionable strategies for home, and ways to support ongoing progress outside of sessions.
How to Get Started:
Explore how to talk to your child about therapy, locate a qualified professional, and navigate insurance or low-cost care options.
Quick Read
Therapy can make a life-changing difference for children and teens struggling with emotional, behavioral, or mental health challenges. Some children benefit from talk-based therapy like Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), while others find Play Therapy or Family Therapy more engaging and supportive. In some cases, combining therapy approaches—or adding medication—yields the best results.
Key Points
Early Intervention Matters: Getting help early can reduce problems at home, school, or with peers.
Multiple Options: Therapies range from ACT, DBT, CBT, and more—each tailored to specific needs.
Parents Are Included: Therapists often teach parents to reinforce positive behaviors and emotional support at home.
Team Approach: A child’s doctor, teachers, and therapist can work together to ensure consistent care.
Check Coverage: Learn what insurance or community resources might help cover therapy costs.
Child Therapy Treatments
What We Cover
- Different Types of Therapy Treatments for Children and Adolescents
- Finding The Right Therapy For Your Child
- Benefits of Each Type of Therapy
Different Types of Therapy Treatments for Children and Adolescents
Below are several well-established therapy approaches. Each serves a unique purpose depending on the child’s diagnosis, experiences, and developmental stage.
1. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- What it is: ACT helps children and teens acknowledge and accept difficult emotions or thoughts rather than trying to avoid them.
- How it works: Through mindfulness and understanding, children learn to see these emotions as normal parts of life. A therapist then guides them to commit to positive actions that align with their values and goals.
- Who benefits: Children who feel “stuck” or overwhelmed by negative thoughts, traumatic experiences, or stress often find ACT helpful.
2. Behavior Therapy
- What it is: Focuses on teaching children (and their families) strategies to reinforce positive behaviors and reduce unwanted behaviors.
- How it works: A therapist works with parents and caregivers to respond more effectively to a child’s actions, using rewards, clear expectations, and consistent consequences.
- Who benefits: This approach can be particularly effective for children with ADHD, oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), or conduct disorder. It is often called Parent Training in Behavior Management when the emphasis is on teaching parents.
3. Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT)
- What it is: CBT is one of the most widely researched therapies for children. It aims to change unhelpful or distorted thinking patterns that affect a child’s mood and behavior.
- How it works: Children learn to recognize negative or irrational thoughts (“Nobody likes me”) and replace them with more realistic, adaptive thoughts (“I have friends and people do care about me”). By changing how they think, children can alter how they feel and act.
- Who benefits: Effective for anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and various behavior problems.
4. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- What it is: A specialized form of CBT that emphasizes coping with intense emotions and relationship conflicts.
- How it works: DBT focuses on emotional regulation, mindfulness, interpersonal effectiveness, and distress tolerance. Often involves individual therapy plus group skill-building sessions.
- Who benefits: Particularly helpful for older adolescents with chronic suicidal thoughts, self-harm behaviors, borderline personality traits, or difficulty managing intense emotions.
5. Family Therapy
- What it is: Therapy involving the entire family system (child, parents, siblings, grandparents, or other significant relatives).
- How it works: The therapist helps improve communication, resolve conflicts, and educate family members about mental health issues. Couples therapy is a specialized form that focuses on the parents’ or guardians’ relationship.
- Who benefits: Children experiencing behavior or emotional struggles that are connected to family stress or communication problems. It’s also beneficial when changes in the home (divorce, loss, relocation) are a factor.
6. Interpersonal Therapy (IPT)
- What it is: A brief, evidence-based treatment that focuses on how personal relationships affect mood and well-being.
- How it works: The therapist frames a child’s difficulties in interpersonal terms and addresses communication patterns, social skills, and conflict resolution.
- Who benefits: Initially developed for depression, it also helps with other clinical conditions influenced by relationship challenges.
7. Mentalization Based Therapy (MBT)
- What it is: Focuses on improving a child or teen’s ability to understand themselves and others (their own and others’ thoughts, emotions, and intentions).
- How it works: Therapists encourage reflection on how emotions, beliefs, and actions affect relationships.
- Who benefits: Often used for children who struggle with identity issues, self-image, or understanding social interactions.
8. Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT)
- What it is: An interactive coaching process for families struggling with behavior problems and parent-child relationship concerns.
- How it works: Parents learn strategies to encourage positive behaviors and reduce negative behaviors in real time.
- Who benefits: Children ages 2–12 with disruptive behaviors (e.g., aggression, tantrums) and families wanting to build a more positive relationship.
10. Play Therapy
- What it is: Uses play—dolls, puppets, blocks, drawing, games—to help children express emotions and work through problems.
- How it works: Play gives children a comfortable outlet to explore feelings, conflicts, or traumatic experiences at their own level. Therapists observe and gently guide them toward healthier coping skills.
- Who benefits: Younger children struggling with emotional expression, trauma, anxiety, behavioral issues, or developmental challenges.
11. Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
- What it is: Emphasizes exploring subconscious motivations, inner conflicts, and past experiences that influence present behaviors.
- How it works: Through regular sessions, children gain insight into their feelings, defense mechanisms, and patterns. A more intensive form called psychoanalysis can involve several sessions per week.
- Who benefits: Children needing deeper exploration of underlying, often unconscious, emotional struggles.
12. Supportive Therapy
- What it is: Provides ongoing emotional support and guidance to help children manage stress, build self-esteem, and address unhealthy behaviors.
- How it works: The therapist fosters a trusting relationship, offering reassurance, validation, and skill-building techniques.
- Who benefits: Helpful for children who need a consistent supportive environment while navigating transitions, daily stress, or mild emotional challenges.
Finding the Right Therapy for Your Child
1. Begin with an initial assessment:
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- A Child Therapist will collect background information, develop goals, and answer any questions you have related to treatment. They'll also be able to provide resources when other treatments need to be considered.
2. Consider Your Child’s Symptoms and Age:
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- For behavior disorders, anxiety, or depression, therapies like Behavior Therapy and CBT are typically recommended.
- For trauma, specialized approaches like Trauma-Focused CBT (TF-CBT) may be recommended.
3. Involve the Whole Family When Needed:
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- Family therapy or parent-focused approaches can support a child’s progress at home.
4. Ask the Right Questions:
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- How long will therapy last?
- Will the therapist work with only the child, or also include parents?
- How will parents be updated?
- How do we know therapy is working?
Benefits of Each Type of Therapy
- ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy): Encourages self-acceptance, mindfulness, and moving forward despite painful feelings.
- Behavior Therapy: Builds consistent structure, clear expectations, and improved family relationships.
- CBT (Cognitive Behavior Therapy): Evidence-based, can quickly reduce symptoms by changing negative thinking patterns.
- DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy): Excellent for intense emotional dysregulation, teaches coping skills for high-stress situations.
- Family Therapy: Improves communication, reduces conflict, enhances family support system.
- Interpersonal Therapy (IPT): Focus on healthy relationships, particularly effective for depression.
- MBT (Mentalization-Based Therapy): Helps children better understand their own and others’ feelings and intentions.
- PCIT (Parent-Child Interaction Therapy): Real-time coaching for parents, improves child behavior and family bond.
- Play Therapy: Gives younger children a natural way to process complex feelings.
- Psychodynamic Therapy: Offers deeper insight into inner conflicts and defense mechanisms.
- Supportive Therapy: Ongoing guidance builds self-esteem and resilience, helpful during daily stress and transitional times.
Additional Tips & Resources
- Seek Early Intervention: Prompt care can prevent more serious issues from developing.
- Coordinate with School: Teachers, school counselors, or support staff can help implement consistent strategies.
- Insurance & Coverage: Check your insurance coverage. Eden Behavioral Health is in-network with: Blue Cross Blue Shield, United Healthcare, Aetna, Cigna.
- Reduce Stigma: Remind your child that therapy is not a punishment—it is a proactive step toward well-being, much like visiting a doctor for a physical ailment.
- Stay Involved: Therapy is often most successful when parents or caregivers actively support the child’s progress at home.