Individual therapy is just one of many modalities through which children, adolescents, and adults can get help for their emotional and behavioral difficulties. Clients come to therapy for a variety of reasons, such as anxiety, depression, stress, difficulty getting along with peers, or trying to overcome a trauma of some kind. Whatever the reason, people seek help because the difficulties they are experiencing prevent them from living a happy and fulfilling life.
Therapy offers a safe and supportive environment where clients can come and talk about or, in the case of children, act out their issues. The goal of therapy is to help individuals explore the roots of their current problems, gain a deeper understanding of themselves, and find new ways to work through their problems. Therapy is a slow process and requires hard work on the part of the client. However, through a collaborative effort between the client and the therapist, the client should be able to start breaking free from the emotional and behavioral chains that prevent him/her from living the life he/she wants to live. Unfortunately, there are some cases where therapy does not alleviate the targeted symptoms. In most clients, though, improvements can be seen.
As the name indicates, individual therapy takes place between the therapist and a client. However, the format of individual therapy differs depending upon the emotional and developmental abilities of the client. For children, the method I use is that of play therapy. To learn more about play therapy, visit the Play Therapy page on this web site. Art therapy and sandtray/sandplay therapy are just two of many additional treatment modalities I also utilize with children. With adolescents and adults, I normally use talk therapy integrated with some of the aforementioned techniques.