Child Psychologists and Child Therapists in Gateway, FL.

Effective successful therapy relies on communication and the relationship between therapist and patient. Play therapy allows for the relationship, and improves the communication with children. Children live in their own world. Effective therapy goes to their world and brings back the information to the adult world. Charting behaviors and rewarding positive behaviors are effective techniques for eliminating and decreasing negative behaviors.

Many times, child therapists overdo the family system in their quest to seek effective solutions for emotional, learning or behavioral concerns with young children. And many times doctors overpathologize issues that shouldn’t be medicated necessarily. This leaves parents wondering what is the best route for their child? Introducing brainwave optimization technology. A fast, effective, natural, and less expensive way to allow your child's brain to make the optimizing changes it desires to make---on its own! Without any external force, opinion, medication, diagnostic, etc. Contact kevin@kevinflemingphd.com or 877-606-6161.

Dr. Kelsey completed specialized training in pediatrics and is also certified as a school psychologist. She has worked for over 15 years with children and teens. Her team also includes several excellent therapists who also love working in this area. Teen therapy is often conducted by our board-certified DBT clinician who helps teens work on emotional regulation and learning to feel positive control over their emotions, which increases confidence and positive self-esteem! Child therapy is often a combination of skills training, and activities that feel playful and help us children to understand themselves better. We also complete full psychological assessments (ASD/ADHD, dyslexia, etc!)

All work and no play? Growing up is challenging at any age, stage, or developmental level. Coping with life at home, school, with parent relationships, with peers, and everything in between, we may struggle to find the words to process what we are encountering. Play therapy is to children while talk therapy is to adults. That doesn’t mean play therapy doesn’t work for adults too! We see ages 2 through 92 for play therapy, however we find many have come to this section to learn about play therapy for their children.

As a father of 7, I’ve experienced firsthand the blessings and challenges of every age and stage of raising kids. In my online work with younger kids, I use curiosity, encouragement, fun, and humor to build rapport. Once the relationship is established, opportunities emerge to go deeper. And during the healing process, I work closely with parents.

Although it’s a hard pill to swallow, I’ve found that young children often display anxiety, disobedience, and other problem-behaviors because they are absorbing chaos within the home... often because the parents haven’t dealt with their own issues. This isn’t a judgment. Parenting is tough. But if you’re looking for someone to “fix” your kid, I’m not your guy. However, if you’re open to parent coaching, and willing to work on individual healing and/or strengthening your marriage, I’m here to help. At Lion Counseling, our mission is to help you escape the cages that hold you back and become the lion God created you to be.