The Role Of A Child’s Therapist In A Divorce

Divorces can be depressing and counseling is the best way to cope up with the situation. Apart from the adults, children, sometime require counseling. For children, counseling plays the same role – coping with the situation. Also, when children who get upset over their parent’s divorce are counseled, they become more emotionally stable. But it’s easier than it sounds because unlike adults, children show a wide range of emotions and therefore handling them becomes difficult. Age and development plays a major role in children who are trying to adjust to a divorce.

Counseling for children falls under two broad categories. The first one is group counseling and the second is individual divorce counseling.

Group counseling

In the first type, the counselor selects children whose parents have gone through a divorce and forms a group. Next, he/she talks to them like one would talk to a small class. Different issues are addressed and the counselor tries to understand what the children need and how he/she can provide them. Group counseling is mostly beneficial for kids over the age of 12. Children in this age group understand better when they are in a group because then they don’t feel isolated. They don’t think that they are the only one who is going through such a situation. Also, it makes it easy for them to bond with complete strangers.

Individual divorce counseling

Individual divorce counseling is mostly given to younger children. But in some cases, it works well with teens and adults as well. Children who require counseling that will help them in the long-term benefit from this type of counseling. The counseling session helps relieve stress and counselors teach children how to release their emotions. As a result, the children develop coping skills to better deal with stress and depression.

The little research that has been done on individual counseling has shown that children do show signs of improvement after their counseling sessions. Children have also shown to develop positivity and increased performance in academics and other activities.

Conclusion

Counseling plays a vital role in helping couples battle depression, anxiety and a variety of emotions. It is being increasingly used in children to help them cope up with their parent’s divorce. Be it in a group or on an individual level, counseling children has helped them gain a variety of positive characteristics that will be useful in the long run.

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Gerald A. Maggio is an experienced Orange County divorce and family law lawyer and family law attorney located in Irvine, California, serving the Orange County and Riverside areas. Mr. Maggio assists clients with legal issues including divorce, legal separation, divorce mediation, child custody, prenuptial agreements, stepparent adoptions, and other family law issues. Mr. Maggio has practiced law in California since 1999, and founded The Maggio Law Firm in 2005, focusing exclusively on divorce and family law matters.