Therapy Services for Children
Evidence-based support helps children with big emotions build regulation, confidence, and a stronger connection with their families and caregivers.
Therapy for Families Navigating Emotional and Behavioral Challenges
Children with big emotions can feel intense, unpredictable, and hard to support. What looks like acting out, defiance, or shutdown is often a child struggling to regulate, connect, or cope. Support focuses on building emotional regulation, strengthening connection, and giving parents practical tools that work in real life.
When Big Feelings Take Over
Sometimes family life starts to feel like survival mode.
Child flips from 0-60 emotionally
Minor setbacks are responded to with huge outbursts
All feelings expressed seem to go straight to anger or aggression
Small requests are met with consent negation and push back
Some children respond to big emotions by acting out, while others hold them in. In those cases that can look like:
- Seeking constant reassurance
- Bedtime delay tactics – their “worry” brain won’t turn off
- Avoiding activities that they may enjoy
- Complaints of body and stomach aches when big emotions arise
All children experience big emotions differently, and some need more support than others.
Research shows that children can navigate their big emotions with evidence-based support. You might always have a “big feeling” child, but the goal is a child that can name their feelings, ask for what they need and regulate.
Families need support that understands both the science of child development and the reality of parenting.
Research Shows:
The way parents interpret their child's behavior directly affects how they react to it.
Understanding What Your Child’s Behavior Is Communicating
Children don’t always have the words or skills to express what they are feeling. What shows up as behavior is often a child’s way of communicating distress, overwhelm, or an unmet need. Some children express this outwardly – acting out. Others turn it inward – acting in.
Acting Out
(Big, External Reactions)
Some children show their struggles through visible, intense behaviors:
- Tantrums or emotional outbursts
- Yelling, hitting, or aggression
- Defiance or refusal
- Breaking rules or destroying items
These behaviors are often not about being “difficult,” but about a child feeling overwhelmed and not yet having the skills to regulate or communicate what they need.
Acting In
(Quiet, Internal Struggles)
Other children hold their feelings in, which can be harder to notice:
- Withdrawal or shutting down
- Anxiety or excessive worry
- Crying or sadness
- Avoidance or reluctance to engage
These responses can reflect a child trying to cope with fear, uncertainty, or internal overwhelm.
What This Means for Support
Both acting out and acting in are forms of communication. They signal that a child needs support, not just correction.
Services focus on helping children build emotional regulation skills while supporting parents in understanding what sits underneath the behavior. When children feel safer, more understood, and better equipped to manage their emotions, behavior often begins to shift.
Children Services with: Dr. Davis
Intervention will begin with a caregiver-child play session. The primary purpose of this session is to collect data and get to know your family. In intervention sessions, clinicians teach and practice emotion regulation, problem-solving, tools for sibling/peer interaction, social skills, and more. The language used mirrors that taught to parents in parent sessions, allowing all family members to build emotional vocabulary and coping skills together.
Each week, a new social, emotional, or behavioral skill is added to your child’s toolbox. At the end of the program, we collect post-intervention data and meet with you and your child to celebrate victories and plan for any next steps or support your family may need.
What Children Will Learn
Acting Out
Understanding School Rules and Behavior Expectations
Detecting and Understanding Feelings
Problem Solving
Managing Big Feelings
- Friendship Skills and Social Development
- Recognize that worry brain is taking over
- Coping strategies (self-soothing) move through anxiety instead of avoiding or melting down
Acting In
- How to notice when “worry brain” is taking over and trying to boss your child around
- Recognizing different types of emotions, automatic negative thoughts, worry thoughts, and thinking errors in the moment
- Develop a toolbox to help your child cope with worry thoughts so they don’t feel bullied into missing out on fun things in life!
- Learn to see yourself as brave and resilient by successfully tolerating distress with support
Helping Families Thrive clinicians are trained in evidence-based strategies, including Coping, Acceptance, and Commitment Therapy, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Our goal is not to take away your child’s anxiety; it is to build resilient children who know they are brave and capable. Children and families are supported using research-based approaches, including the Incredible Years® Program.
The Helping Families Thrive goal is not to change who a child is. The goal is to help children feel safer, calmer, and more capable of managing their emotions.
How to Enroll
Step 1: Review our range of telehealth and in-person therapy options here.
Step 2: Download and review our Service Agreement Form. This form provides detailed descriptions of services, dates, insurance information, and service costs.
Step 3: After reviewing the Service Agreement Form, schedule your intake session for the winter or spring session using the request appointment button below. Be sure to carefully follow the instructions from the Service Agreement Form to select the correct service.
Step 4: Monitor your inbox for an email from Simple Practice, our booking and records system. You will receive all enrollment paperwork and appointment details via email within 1-2 business days.
You’re Not Alone in This
Parenting children with big feelings can feel isolating. Many families find relief simply by learning alongside other parents who are navigating similar experiences. The goal is not perfect parenting. The goal is connection, regulation, and a steadier family life.
Have Questions? Contact Us
If you have selected a program and are scheduling your intake session, please refer to the Service Agreement Form and follow the scheduling instructions carefully.
Still not sure which program is best for you? Contact Us for more information.
