Child Therapy In St. Petersburg, FL
There is hope for the biggest of hurts
Your family’s story matters.
Have you felt super defeated by your kiddo’s behavior? Have you pulled all of your best tricks out and nothing seems to be working to calm his or her anger, tantrums, overwhelming emotion?
Has your child’s school started reporting behaviors that are becoming unmanageable and you want to intervene early so it doesn’t begin to affect his or her academically much less socially?
Being a parent is perhaps one of the most difficult jobs we can have as adults. It is non-stop action from the moment your kiddo wakes up to the moment they lay down. Throw in some wild behaviors, difficulty in school and you’ve got a pressure cooker on your hands.
When you find yourself in those situations that cause you to pause and ask yourself, “how did we get here? I thought I was doing everything right?”
You should probably phone a friend (and then call us, the child behavioral experts.)
Kids have big feelings and they look to you for how to manage them (or not). At Sunshine City Counseling, we firmly believe in not only working with the child but also with the parents. After all, you’re going to be around for a lot longer than we will and we want to equip everyone in the family with how to better manage emotions, tackle behavioral concerns and be the kind of parent that your kiddo needs you to be, uniquely for them.
Lets talk. We’d here to support you.
Child Therapy May Be Helpful If…
✅ Your child has a hard time calming themselves down after experiencing big waves of emotion
✅ Someone close to your child has died or big changes have occurred in their life (i.e. divorce, remarried, etc)
✅ Has a hard time focusing on specific tasks or sitting still for what would be required of their age or they are perpetually in motion
✅ School is reporting behaviors that are becoming unmanageable
✅ Experienced a traumatic event
✅ Making friends and keeping them is difficult
Children are the parents redemption.
Child Therapy In St. Petersburg, FL Can Help You
Kids look to their parents for how to manage their emotions, how to have relationships and engage in the world. Sometimes, our environments can feel super overwhelming to our little people and sometimes our own emotional world — as the parents and adults — has been stressed to the point that everyone in the family is feeling it.
By working with a child therapist at Sunshine City Counseling, we’ll teach you how to anchor yourself so your kids have a place to return to. When they experience big, scary emotions they tend to be all over the place and struggle to regulate. That’s where we’ll equip you with actionable tools to help your child learn how to self-regulate and come back to a place of safety and calm.
Our kids are their own people and sometimes their world feels chaotic and overwhelming and they don’t know how to deal with all of it. We work to help your little people manage their big feelings in a way that doesn’t quell their sense of self but rather empowers them in who they are. We work with you to be the anchor that they need in order to return to a place of safety and calm.
This is about helping shape your kiddo into the kind of empathic and authentic adult you desire them to become.
What Keeps Parents From Pursuing Child Therapy?
The Unknown.
Therapy can be extremely intimidating for a lot of different reasons — What do they do with my child? What if my child’s behaviors are not that bad? What if it makes things worse? I don’t want to expose my child to another "medical” person. There are a lot of reasons why parents won’t ever pursue child therapy but we find that, what feels like, the unknown can be a huge barrier.
They’ll Just Figure It Out
It feels safer and easier to just “figure it out” or “I’ll try harder.” Eventually, though, it runs out and it isn’t about white knuckling your way through life. However, for a lot of people, it seems safer to keep doing the same thing over and over again because it is predictable and known even though life kind of sucks (if you’re being honest). At the heart of it, though, we just don’t want to be seen as a “bad parent".”
It’s Too Expensive
Child therapy can definitely be expensive and if you are looking for reasons as to why you don’t want to do, this is usually somewhere on the list. It’s either too expensive or you just don’t have the time. Here’s the thing, we make time and figure out the money when it’s a priority and we know that it is worth it. We are usually pretty quick to going to the dentist and paying whatever it costs when our tooth hurts. Why does our child’s mental health need to take a back seat?
They seem fine
You may have noticed that something seems off with your little person but now they seem totally fine? You may have thought that it was a big deal (because it was) but now they seem fine and don’t even bring it up. The problem with this is that your kiddo likely doesn’t know how to articulate what they are feeling sooo…they are silent — or they are fine.
How Does Child Therapy Work?
At Sunshine City Counseling, we utilize Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy as well as Trust-Based Relational Intervention Therapy to address all types of struggles. Kids speak the loudest through their behaviors so we want to meet them in that — through action and play. We find that engaging your child in play therapy helps to put them at ease, makes counseling way more fun and effective. After all, it is easier to talk about hard things when we are both utilizing our bodies, hands and minds in play.
A lot of work can and will be done with just your child but we believe in treating the whole issue, not just a piece of it. We work really hard to provide psycho-education to you, the parent, and the child in addition to treating the behaviors that are difficult to manage.
Your child is so much more than the trauma he/she has endured and the ways the past works itself out behaviorally.
Let us partner together to get your kid back to being a kid, again.
What People Are Saying About Child Therapy
"I thought I lost my daughter forever but you brought her back to life. She used to shut down and now she sings. We will never forget how much you [Samantha] helped our family. Thank you."
— a Mom
“She worked with my 12 year old daughter through some really challenging issues she was having…Olivia was absolutely fabulous…Within the first few sessions, I saw my daughter make significant improvement and over the next few months, Olivia helped my daughter return to her “old happy self.” I would definitely recommend her to others…
— a Dad
Start Child Therapy in St. Petersburg, FL at Sunshine City Counseling
Select Your Child Therapist
Alexis Younes is our child whisper. Alexis is a Registered Mental Health Therapist who works with kids (and teens) to help them understand their emotions. You can learn more about Alexis by clicking on her photo down below.
This is about you and your family.
Schedule Your First Free Session
Right below this, you have access to Alexis’ calendar so find a time that works for you and lock in that free session! Oh, be on the lookout for an email with our intake paperwork. This helps us get to know you and make the most of our time together!
Show Up (and keep showing up)
If you’re working with Alexis online, she will send you a link to our HIPPA Compliant online video platform so be on the lookout for that (typically, a few hours prior to your session). If you’re coming in to our office in downtown St. Petersburg, take the tour of our offices to ensure you are familiar. We share a huge parking lot with the ER of Palms of Pasadena so it is super easy. This whole process works — you’ve just got to show up and be curious.
Your Child Therapist in St. Petersburg, FL
Alexis Younes
Frequently Asked Questions About Child Therapy
+ What Can I Expect During Our Free Session?
I mean, who doesn’t love free? In all seriousness though, we take our jobs super seriously and want to make sure that we’re a good fit. Studies have shown that 90% of the change that you and your kiddo will experience is due to the relationship you build with your counselor.
SO, we do a free 30min session with everyone to make sure you dig us and we dig you and we will be helpful. Practically speaking, we will meet with you and your kiddo for the first 10-15mins to hear — from your perspective — what it is you are bringing them in for. We’ll talk about who we are, what we do (most of the time the kids play aloof to the whole situation) and how we can help. We’ll then lovingly kick you out of the room for the last 10mins or so and engage your kiddo in play.
We want to to establish a relationship with them and we find that doing this through play can be super helpful…we also want to know what we’re working with in terms of super shy and friendly or very stand off-ish and resistant.
+ What Level of Involvement Can I Expect As A Parent?
A lot! While you most likely won’t be in the session with your child, that doesn’t mean you won’t ever be included or that you won’t know what’s going on. Generally speaking, your counselor will ask that you send in an email prior to your child’s session so the counselor can know what all has been happening, what you all have been noticing, etc. She will then follow up after sessions where she feels like it is pertinent for you to know details as to what came up or what was discussed. After every few sessions, your counselor will most likely ask to speak with you whether by phone or the first bit of your child’s session. Every situation is unique and different but while we work with your child we also want to ensure you are getting the help and support you need as the parent.
+ Am I Not Enough For My Child?
This can be such a common feeling when parents bring their kids in for therapy. So often we feel like we should be able to meet every single one of our kiddos needs but where does that come from? No one can ever fully meet all of our needs and that doesn’t mean you are not enough. Not at all. In fact, by bringing your child in for counseling you are indirectly (or maybe directly) saying that it is okay to ask for help, it is okay to not be okay…you love them enough to find someone who can help. We’re here to support you and remind you that you are more than enough for your kid(s).
+ Do You Take Insurance?
We are considered “out of network” and leave it up to you whether or not you’d like to involve your insurance. We’re happy to give you a superbill so you can get reimbursed but we’ll leave the running around and chasing your insurance company up to you 😅
Keep Reading About Child Therapy
What Other Counseling Services Does Sunshine City Counseling Offer?
Whether you’re looking for support in managing anxiety, depression or taking a deep dive into addressing your trauma — we got you. With a team of over 8 counselors, we are able to support you, your relationship and/or your family in all of the ways.
While we have physical offices in downtown St. Petersburg, Fl, we also provide support outside of the state in order to bring exceptional mental health support right to your couch.
We also support the state of Maine.
We’d love to support you. You don’t have to do this alone.