Children

Therapy can help children and families understand and resolve problems, modify behavior, and make positive changes in their lives.  Sometimes young children lack the verbal and cognitive skills to discuss their experiences however a family may notice difficult behaviours at home, a child disengaging with school or a range of other issues. A child can be impacted by an event or situation without any way to convey the problem to you, their caregiver.  

It is also worth highlighting how the traumas that have not healed in this generation have the potential of being passed into the next. The sense of self in any child does not develop in isolation; in fact it develops in the parent-child relationship and other important relationships early in life. We came to this world to connect with others and when these connections do not happen or they happen in a way that hurt us or injure us, our sense of self does not develop appropriately. 

Sometimes the parent may be highly traumatized by living through the traumas of their children and the healing needs to take place in both, the child and the parent. Sometimes because of the parents’ early experiences with their own parents, they may have difficulties setting boundaries with their kids, or they may be overprotective, neglectful or abusive or too distant or too intrusive. Parent’s emotional problems can affect their children’s emotional, physical and psychological development. For instance, a parent with depression, without knowing or intending to, may neglect their child’s needs for connection and love. This can result in having a child with emotional and behavioral problems.  (Ana. M. Gomez)

Trauma can result from one event, multiple events, or a series of them. These events can cause children to see the world as dangerous and can alter their ability to function. A child may experience anxiety,fear of death, panic, powerlessness, anger, anddeep sadness. When the trauma is a result of violence perpetrated by a caregiver they trust, it becomes overwhelming and can cause a child to be in a constant state of worry. This, of course, interferes with the child’s ability to trust or to sustain and maintain relationships.

Children can also experience PTSD symptoms as a result of bullying, physcial, psychological or sexual abuse and invasive medical procedures. Since our emotional states are a result of how we perceive the world, a child may have stress related to a memory that, to anyone else, would not seem to be a 'big deal.' In an effort to help their children deal with the incident, parents often tell a child that it 'wasn't that bad' and in an effort to protect the child will often minimise the impact on the child. For the child however, this makes them feel invlidated and not heard with trauma symptoms being 'trapped' within the mind and body until it is able to be processed. 

RMB Psychology uses a mxture of art therapy, play therapy, cogntive behavoiural therapy and EMDR to help children, and thier families, deal with a variety of issues.

EMDR and Children

EMDR is effective and well supported by research evidence for treating children with symptoms accompanying posttraumatic stress (PTSD), attachment issues and self-regulation. It has also been effective in treating symptoms related to guilt, anger, depresion and anxiety and can be used to boost emotional resources such as confidence and self-esteem.

The World Health Organization recommended two psychotherapies for children, adolescents, and adults with PTSD: trauma-focused cognitive behavoiural therapy and EMDR. Of the two modalities, some of the research describes EMDR as 'significantly more efficient'.  EMDR has been shown to work in even pre-verbal children.