Child Counselling

Your Child Could Benefit From Counselling During This Stressful Time

We have all taken strain in various ways over the past year or two due to the far-reaching impact of the pandemic on our lives. We are all very aware of it and how it affected our daily lives. Typically, we consider children to be very resilient, but have we truly considered how they were mentally affected by these changes?

One day, they were simply picked up from school and told that life as they know it had changed completely and that they won’t be seeing their friends anytime soon again. How does anybody deal with this? Child counselling might be a useful and valuable start.

If seeking child counselling sounds slightly extreme or alarmist, consider the changes that have been observed among children as reported by the Kaiser Family Foundation in May 2021. They have found that:

47% of parents of preschool kids indicated that they are more worried about their children’s emotional wellbeing.
22% of parents of children aged 5 – 12 reported that their children experienced overall worsened mental or emotional health. Reported conditions include depression, anxiety and psychological stress.
25% of high school kids claimed worsened emotional health shortly after the start of the pandemic, and, more recently, as little as one third indicated that they could cope with their source of stress.

These statistics are hardly surprising. There are a myriad of influencing factors, including but not limited to:

Loneliness due to the isolation of lockdowns and social distancing
Adapting to studying at home and working on their own
Missing their friends
Extreme change of routine
Stress of parents affecting kids (due to various reasons, such as poor health, loss of income, etc.)
The constant threat of living through a global pandemic

Child counselling can help

It comes as no surprise to any of us that dealing with so many stresses and uncertainties can be overwhelming. How much more so for a young person who is still developing their coping skills? Even the adults they tend to look at for guidance are still figuring out how to deal with this changing world. Children could experience difficulty verbalising their stresses, and child counselling can help them to comprehend what they are going through and develop the necessary means to navigate this strange new world.

Dr Tienie Maritz is a highly qualified psychologist who has extensive experience in dealing with children and young adults. To find out more about the child counselling services he offers, get in touch with his office. Your child deserves the necessary support to deal with a world that feels like it has been turned upside down.

Sources:

https://www.tieniemaritz.co.za

KFF.org