Anxiety, Trauma & Behaviors
Comprehensive mental health support for children and teens experiencing anxiety, trauma, and challenging behaviors in Omaha, NE
Children With the Most Needs Often Show it in Difficult Ways
Non-stop arguing, tantrums, and refusal from your child has invaded your lives. What was once simple is now an uphill battle. Behaviors are terrible no matter where your child is. And it is gut-wrenching to watch them struggle.Your little one struggles to sit still, doesn’t share his toys, and interrupts conversations. Trying to get him to clean his room or keep his backpack organized is a lost battle. Calls from the school tell you of poor concentration and social awkwardness with peers. You’re searching for ways to help your child relax and cope. You desperately want to understand what has overruled your child. And you both need better ways to manage the overwhelm and stress. Therapy for children involves both the parent and child. While the child is learning healthier ways to manage emotions and improve behavior, parents learn to see the child’s behavior as a form of communication. Through positive, attachment-based parenting skills parents are able to encourage the child, manage the child’s needs, and see beyond the behavior that would historically lead to shaming and behavior-focused strategies. Our treatment will help you focus on meeting the unmet needs of the child instead of stifling the behavior.
What is EMDR?
EMDR, or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, is an evidence-based therapy that helps the brain heal from trauma and distressing experiences. Instead of talking through every detail, EMDR uses guided eye movements or similar stimulation to help the brain reprocess painful memories. This allows the emotional intensity, fear, and overwhelm connected to those memories to decrease over time. Many people experience relief, clearer thinking, and more balanced reactions as their brain learns to store the memory without the same level of distress.
Understanding Anxiety, Trauma, and Behavior in Children
Children are not naturally designed to act out and tantrum. Their experience of the emotion is generally just as frustrating for them as it is for you. Anxiety and trauma often cause the behavior difficulties you wish to reduce. Anxiety in children can cause stomach aches, excessive worry, and poor sleep. Anxiety causes a child’s behavior and reaction to increase and be expressed outside of what the situation would normally call for. Trauma can cause children to develop new and returning fears, return to bed-wetting after successful potty training, have trouble concentrating, turn to aggression, experience uncontrolled emotions, and have symptoms that mirror ADHD. There are two types of traumas: big T and little T traumas. Big T traumas include experiencing or witnessing violence, high conflict divorce, and neglect. Little T traumas are smaller insults from daily living, like frequent moving, bullying, and non-life-threatening accidents. During childhood, all traumas unlike with adults, are experienced as Big T traumas, simply because of the overwhelm of stress and fear that children experience. This overwhelm almost always interferes with daily functioning, where the negative responses and behaviors increase with each traumatic event and the longer the trauma goes on.
Tools & Strategies That Help Children Thrive
- Emotion regulation tools
- Self-esteem improvement
- Having a safe and neutral place to process
- Articulation, or ability to communicate their needs and feelings
- Developing a better understanding of the child’s development
- Focusing on strategies to meet the needs of their child
- Improving their emotion regulation skills
- Adding to their list of supports and resources
You’re Not Alone in This
We offer resources and services to support your child’s emotional, behavioral, and developmental needs, including play therapy and help for parenting challenges. If you’re unsure where to begin, scheduling a free consultation is a simple first step.