How Can A Child Psychologist Help?
If you or your child are experiencing learning, behavioural or social difficulties, seeing a psychologist can help to overcome these issues to live a fulfilling life of endless potential.
Are you concerned about any of these common mental health issues?
- Learning difficulties
- Anxiety or stress
- Difficulties with social interactions
- Anger or other destructive emotions
- Depression or grief
- Addiction or dependence
- Relationship problems
- Bullying and peer pressure
- Trauma
- Behaviour concerns
- Family conflict
- Attachment difficulties
If so, we can help to address such issues through assessment, therapy, behaviour support plans, consultation and guidance for children, youth and family groups. Our child and family focused psychologists can offer these services and supports at one of our clinics, in-home or at school.
Benefits of Seeing a Child Psychologist
By specialising in child psychology, you get the benefit of their expertise at working through mental health issues that are unique to childhood and adolescence. Using evidence-based techniques, our child psychologists can get children to comfortably talk about the issues affecting them, establishing a therapeutic relationship based on trust. Mental health issues are explained to children in a way that avoids creating stigma, focusing on self-actualisation and healthy self-image, rather than victimhood and other negative associations.
If you or your child could benefit from seeing a psychologist, please don’t hesitate to get in touch for a consultation.
Local Psychologists in North Brisbane, Newcastle, Cessnock and the Central Coast
Beam Health has psychology clinics based in Newcastle, North Brisbane, Cessnock, and the Central Coast. Where necessary or preferred, a psychologist can visit at home or school. Telehealth services are also available for online video sessions.
We can help in the following areas:
Mental health is a state of well-being in which every individual realises his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community. Some of the signs of mental health concerns tend to be:
1. Feeling anxious or worried
2. Feeling depressed or unhappy
3. Emotional outbursts
4. Sleep problems
5. Weight or appetite changes
6. Quiet or withdrawn
7. Substance abuse
8. Feeling guilty or worthless
9. Changes in behaviour or feelings
If you or your child is experiencing mental health concerns or just not themselves, it is may be important that you seek professional support sooner rather than later. We are very experienced at supporting children, youth and families managing mental health concerns. Our Psychologists offer a professional and private telehealth & online service, using technology that enables you to access services wherever your location in Australia.
Don’t forget that you can ask your GP for a referral as part of a Mental Health Care Plan and medicare will then cover some of the cost of seeing the psychologist.
Difficult behaviours can present in many ways such as verbal opposition and aggression, acting out, socially inappropriate behaviours, escalations and tantrums and even property damage. It can be confronting to be faced with difficult behaviours in children and young people. You might even notice your response is highly emotive or increasingly stressed and it can impact your own wellbeing when faced with these behaviours.
We can work with you and your child to provide behavioural assessments, therapy and consultation to address immediate risks and help you plan effective responses to challenging behaviour. We are experienced in developing behaviour support plans and consulting with professionals and families to implement appropriate strategies and supports. Our supports can be provided at our clinic, in the home or at school.
We also offer telehealth psychology and online service to help make it easier for those who are unable to visit our Newcastle psychologist’s consulting rooms in person.
Traumatic memories can remain unprocessed long after the experience. They are stored differently to everyday memories and can be triggered by even the simplest reminders, such as smells, sights or sounds. It can appear as though your child is “hyperactive” or even has stunted learning and concentration. If you are concerned your child may be struggling from the impact of trauma we can help. We will work with you to offer a safe environment so your child can make sense of their experience and develop effective skills to manage unhealthy emotions.
We offer therapy-based approaches to address trauma, including Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT). Telehealth services is emerging, particularly during current global health conditions. Our psychologists in Newcastle offer professional private online sessions for those are not able to visit our psychologist’s consulting rooms in person.
It is estimated that 1 in 100 people have autism, or to put in context, around 230,000 Australians. If you have noticed your child has difficulty with social communication, understanding or expressing emotions and has unusually restricted interests, it may be worthwhile to talk to us about whether your child should be assessed for autism. Children and young people with autism can be easily misunderstood and often require further assistance from health professionals including psychologists, speech pathologists and paediatricians.
We offer assessments and interventions for autism, including behaviour support plans, therapy and family support. We can also provide “know how” information for parents and care-givers on how to respond to challenging behaviours related to autism.
Your child may be eligible for National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) financial assistance. For more information see our NDIS page.
While life has it highs and lows, some children and young people will experience prolonged episodes of sadness. As a parent or caregiver you might notice that your child is withdrawing from others for no apparent reason, has lost interest in things they enjoy or is constantly struggling with concentration and memory. Research says the best course of action for depression is early treatment.
We can provide psycho-education and therapy for your child to support them in moving out of the tunnel of depression towards a brighter life. We can offer Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) based techniques for depression.
It is common for children and young people to experience some anxiety and it is hard to know exactly how much anxiety is too much. If anxiety is interfering with day to day life, at home, in school, study or social areas, it is very important for your child to receive professional help. Our Specialists in Newcastle can help by offering proven strategies such as Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT).
Would you like help with parenting, navigating life’s challenges as a parent or dealing with any challenging aspects of family life?
We will provide you with support, counselling and strategies so you can help your kids learn to overcome challenges at school, at home and in life.
With the right support and advice you can help your kids reach their full potential and thrive!
You might feel as a parent that you are fighting a losing battle when it comes to the influence of your child’s peers. It is often typical as children enter adolescence they begin to feel pressure around acceptance with their peers. You may have much more influence than you realise. Often the connection between you and your child in times of confusion and uncertainty can have a significant influence on their decisions.
We can help you support your child to develop the skills they need to manage conflict and enhancing resilience. We provide counselling and therapeutic support for children and teenagers. We can also offer family-based intervention including parenting skills and resilience building strategies.
If you are concerned your child is struggling in the classroom a learning assessment can be of great value. A common fear of parents is that a learning difficulty means their child cannot achieve academically. If your child does have a learning difficulty, this does not mean they have low intelligence. A learning difficulty impacts the way your child takes in, remembers and processes information.
We can assess for a potential learning difficulty using our high quality assessment tools. Following consultation, we will work with you closely to develop the right strategies to allow your child to achieve to the best of their ability.
Many parents struggle with children or teenagers whose behaviour is challenging, sometimes to the point of anger and violence. You might feel like you have failed your child or that you should keep the aggression behind closed doors. You may also be concerned about your child displaying signs of aggression in social settings. It is okay to seek help if you feel that anger issues are too much to handle by yourself.
We can provide support to you and your child to understand what may be contributing to the anger, while maintaining a focus on restoring your relationship with each other.
Social relationships matter as your child will grow a strong sense of identity from the peer groups they form. As a parent it is only natural that you want your child to grow healthy and safe social relationships. If your child has difficulty building healthy peer relationships or they lack confidence with social skills we can provide support.
Please get in touch if you and your child would like to focus on building interpersonal skills and resilience.
No family is perfect and every individual has an impact on the family system as a whole. If you are questioning your parenting approach or concerned about the impact of your child’s behaviour on your family we can offer family therapy-based support. This approach involves spending time with you and your child in an open and non-judgemental way, focussing on strengths and understanding needs. If family conflict is left undealt with it can significantly rupture future family relationships. Research suggests that negative family interactions can even lead to depression and suicidality throughout adolescence and into adulthood. Our approach to family conflict focuses on the parent-child relationship as we believe this is key to a healthy and happy family.
Our Specialists in Newcastle do offer an evidence-based model to work with families, known as attachment based family therapy. It is a non-threatening and non-judgemental approach to exploring how families can better function and support each other.
Drug and alcohol use during teenage years puts at risk the healthy development of your child’s brain. It can have long-term consequences for their physical, emotional and mental health. It is a serious issue that can be addressed with counselling and family support.
We adopt a non-confrontational, tried and tested strategy in changing behaviour known as motivational interviewing that can help your child with their alcohol or drug use problem.
