Child Therapy

Why consider a therapy for your child? What are its specificities?

Alejandro Jodorowsky. Poesia Sin Fin.

A child is not an adult.

This might seem obvious, but a child’s brain is not mature. The limbic (emotional center) and reptilian (reflexes) cerebral parts play a predominant role in childhood. The frontal cortex, however, which is responsible for rational and analytical thinking, is not yet mature. The child is unable to control their emotions and analyze them. They constantly undergo the ebb and flow of their emotions, passing from laughter to tears, from concentration to dissipation. Therefore, therapy for children must differ greatly from that of adults.

Unable to rely on a classic analysis, therapies adapted to children go through many “mediation tools”.

These tools (playing, drawing, dancing, storytelling, personification, etc.) make it possible to see the child's psychic world - conflicts, inner reality, fears - in a roundabout, symbolic way, qnd less brutal, therefore more reassuring for the child. Using a transitional object, such as a teddy bear, helps avoid the fear of judgment and the sentiment of guilt, which are feelings very present in children: "It's the object that speaks, not me".

Why consider therapy for your child?

The child is an extremely resilient being. Their brain is still very plastic, which makes it possible to work with before neurotic protection mechanisms are too rooted. Offering non-judgmental listening, and a space-time dedicated and adapted to the child is the best way to help them find the resources to deal with their own particular challenges.

Whether the therapeutic methods are different for the child and the adult, the objective of therapy remains the same: to shed light on our wounds and suffering; to find our own resources; and to reconnect ourselves with our primary personality, joy, and essence.

Zoé Messinger