Child Therapy

Research shows that when treating children, the most successful outcomes occur when parents are involved. After an initial parent-only intake session, we typically meet with children weekly and ask that a parent join for part of most counseling sessions. This ensures that parents are aware of the skills their child is learning in therapy and can support their child’s practice and use of these skills outside of therapy.

In addition to your child’s sessions, parent‑only sessions will be scheduled to teach you how to best support your child’s treatment at home. This may include helping your child practice skills learned in therapy, providing support as they tackle exposures and reduce avoidance, and responding to their anxiety, OCD, or depression in new ways that will support healing and not maintain their symptoms.

At Riverstone we are committed to providing the most effective, short-term, evidence-based interventions available to help children and families reach their treatment goals. As such, we reduce the frequency of therapy sessions and “graduate” children from therapy when treatment goals are met. Most families can expect their child to engage in weekly therapy sessions for about four to six months, though this estimate may vary based on the child’s age and severity of symptoms. After a child graduates from therapy we are always available to welcome families back for more support or treatment should new challenges arise.