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Child Therapy

Building emotional resilience, confidence, and connection for children and their families.

Supporting Your Child’s Growth

As a parent, few things are harder than watching your child struggle.

Maybe you've noticed sudden changes in your child's behavior like more frequent tantrums, emotional outbursts, anxieties, fearful reactions, sadness, withdrawal from family and friends, or difficulties in school. Or maybe, you've simply had a gut feeling that something seems off, even if you can't quite put it into words.

It's natural to want to protect your child from pain. But sometimes, the most powerful step you can take is finding them the right support, like giving them a safe, understanding space to express themselves, learn new skills, and build confidence in who they are.

At Cognitive Behavioral Therapy & Assessment Associates (CBTAA), we specialize in helping children and families navigate life's challenges with warmth, empathy, and clinically proven methods. Child therapy can give your child, and your family, the tools to grow stronger, together.

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Children Are Growing Up in a Complex World

Today's children face unique challenges. Academic pressures, social media influences, and global uncertainties can create a level of stress that many young minds are not yet equipped to manage.

In cities like New York City, and the surrounding areas, where competition and fast-paced environments are the norm, children often experience added pressures to perform, fit in, and mature quickly. Without the skills to navigate these stressors, they may act out, shut down, or develop anxiety, low self-esteem, or mood difficulties.

Child therapy can help children better understand and manage these experiences, fostering emotional intelligence, self-confidence, and healthier ways of relating to the world around them.

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When to Consider Child Therapy

Children experience ups and downs just like adults, but when emotional or behavioral concerns persist, impact daily life, or create distress, therapy can be an important support system.

Sometimes, even without "big" visible signs, you may sense that something feels off. Trust your instincts. Child therapy provides a space for early intervention, offering your child (and your family) support before struggles become deeper or more entrenched. In fact, half of all mental illness starts by the age of 14, much of which goes untreated.

You might notice these “visible signs” in your child(ren):

• Frequent emotional outbursts or tantrums
  
• Withdrawal from friends, family, or activities they once enjoyed
  
• Ongoing struggles with worry, sadness, or fears
  
• Difficulty focusing, following directions, or managing impulses
  
• Academic or behavioral challenges at school
  
• Sleep disturbances, changes in appetite, or physical complaints without clear cause
  
• Big reactions to seemingly small events
  
• Difficulty adjusting to family transitions, such as divorce, relocation, or loss

Defiant behaviors can also be a sign that a child is struggling internally. While occasional defiance is developmentally normal, persistent patterns of rule-breaking, oppositional behavior, or aggression may indicate underlying emotional distress, difficulties with self-regulation, or challenges with impulse control. These behaviors are often the result of disinhibition (difficulty containing impulses) and negative emotionality (intense reactions to frustration or disappointment).

While defiant behaviors are somewhat more common in boys than girls, most children who struggle with impulse control or anger early on do not continue to display these behaviors into adulthood, especially with early intervention and support.

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What to Expect From Child Therapy at CBTAA

Step 1: Initial Consultation and Collaborative Assessment

We typically begin by meeting with you — and often with your child — to better understand your concerns, gather background information, and set goals for therapy. We may also use age-appropriate assessments to identify emotional, behavioral, social, or developmental needs.

This early stage is about building trust, answering your questions, and developing a shared understanding of how therapy can help.

Step 2: Individualized Therapy Sessions (with Parental Collaboration)

Therapy sessions are tailored to each child’s age, developmental stage, and specific needs. Our sessions may include one-on-one time with your child, individual sessions with you as the parent, joint sessions with both of you together, or a combination of all three.

For younger children, therapy often centers around parent coaching and skill-building, where we work directly with parents to model and teach strategies that can be implemented at home. With school-aged children, we may alternate between individual sessions and parent check-ins, ensuring you’re informed and actively supporting your child’s growth. Older children and preteens may engage more independently in sessions, with parents included as collaborators and supports as needed. 

When working with your child, sessions may include:

• Talk-based approache
  
• Play therapy techniques
  
• Art or creative activities
  
• Skill-building exercises
  
• Mindfulness practices

Step 3: Consistent Support at Home and Beyond

Parents and caregivers play a vital role in a child’s progress. Whether you’re actively participating in sessions, learning new strategies, or providing encouragement at home, our goal is to create a seamless connection between skills learned in therapy and everyday life. 

We provide regular updates, collaborate with you on building skills, and when appropriate, coordinate with teachers, pediatricians, or other caregivers to ensure your child is supported across all settings.

When families and therapists work together, children benefit from greater emotional consistency, stronger relationships, and a clearer path forward. 

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How We Support Growth Across Developmental Stages

Depending on the age and maturity of the patient, there are varying levels of parental involvement in child therapy. The younger the child, the more we focus on teaching the parent how to help their child. With older children, we take a hybrid approach where we debrief and teach parents what the patient learned at the end of session, with collaborative parent sessions along the way. As children approach adolescence, they often have more occasional parental involvement with regular check-ins and collaborative touch points.

With children and younger teens, reward systems are created to help positively modify their behavior. Basically, they are given rewards and privileges by completing desired behaviors and reasonable punishments for unacceptable behavior. Furthermore, parent-child relationships are critically important to a child's functioning, and when difficulties arise in this area, it can be an important  focus of therapy. When appropriate, we collaborate with school or other important parties. 

Beyond treating symptoms, we also help work through developmental struggles, help children understand and find their identity, establish healthy habits and approaches to life, work through peer relationships, and address other lifestyle issues that may arise, teaching skills to help them on their path to becoming happy well adjusted adults.

Sadly, only 20%-30% of children and adolescents with mental health disorders receive treatment, and only 2% receive treatment that is effective, such as CBT. Early intervention with effective treatment can reduce the severity and duration of the condition and help reduce symptoms in adulthood. 

Evidence-Based Approaches We Use in Child Therapy

Every child is unique, and therapy should be too. We use clinically supported, research-backed treatments that have been proven to reduce symptoms and improve functioning. That means therapy is more than just talking– it’s active, goal-oriented, and designed to create real, measurable change over time. 

At CBTAA, we draw from a range of clinically supported modalities to customize each child's care plan:

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is built on a powerful idea: our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are all connected. When one changes, the others often follow. That means by working on something within our control, like how we think or respond to a situation, we can begin to feel better emotionally.

For children, CBT offers a structured, supportive way to understand this connection. They learn to recognize unhelpful thought patterns, manage big emotions, and practice more effective coping strategies. One of the most impactful aspects of CBT is its emphasis on doing — not just understanding. While insight is important, real progress happens through action and practice, both in and outside of therapy. CBT is heavily focused on skill-building, teaching children practical tools to cope with emotions, solve problems, and improve social interactions.

Behavioral Modification

While often used to reduce defiant or disruptive behaviors, this CBT-based approach has much broader applications. We use structured systems of rewards and, when appropriate, consequences to help children build healthy habits, increase motivation, and develop more adaptive behaviors — whether that’s completing chores, brushing their teeth, doing homework, or reducing sibling conflict.

In other words, behavior modification isn’t just about reducing problematic behavior, it’s about helping children succeed across all areas of life. Through small, consistent changes, kids build confidence, emotional regulation, and momentum — and parents gain clear tools to guide their progress at home.

Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT)

PCIT is a structured, evidence-based therapy that falls under the CBT umbrella. It focuses on strengthening the parent-child relationship while teaching caregivers practical skills to improve behavior, communication, and emotional regulation at home. Sessions often include live coaching, helping parents feel more confident and connected as they support their child’s growth.

Parent Management Training (PMT)

We offer Parent Management Training (PMT) — also called Behavioral Parent Training or Behavioral Parenting Training — to help caregivers learn how to reinforce positive behavior, reduce negative behavior, and feel more confident in day-to-day parenting.

These approaches teach you how to create structure, use praise and incentives effectively, and respond to challenging behavior in ways that are firm, fair, and nurturing.

We use PMT often — not just for defiance, but to help with everything from morning routines to sibling conflict to motivating kids to engage in therapy itself. And because PMT and PCIT both fall under the CBT umbrella, they align with our broader goal: helping families create lasting, evidence-based change that supports emotional and behavioral growth at home.

Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions (SPACE)

Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions (SPACE) is a specialized, parent-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) approach designed to help parents support their child’s anxiety more effectively. Rather than directly working with the child, SPACE focuses on teaching parents how to respond to their child's anxiety without engaging in behaviors that unintentionally reinforce it. Through SPACE, parents learn practical skills to offer support, set healthy boundaries, and gradually reduce accommodations that maintain anxious behaviors.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)

Dialectal Behavior Therapy (DBT) skills, such as mindfulness, emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness, can help children manage overwhelming emotions, build frustration tolerance, and improve communication. Although generally useful, these skills are particularly beneficial for children who experience "big emotions" that may lead to emotional outbursts, impulsivity, or difficulty maintaining self-control.

Play Therapy Techniques

Play is a child’s natural language. Through play therapy, children can express complex emotions, process experiences, and practice new skills in a way that feels accessible and non-threatening. Play also makes therapy more fun, opening the window to allow for more traditional therapy techniques to be introduced in a more enjoyable way.

Mindfulness-Based Interventions

Mindfulness-based interventions teach children how to focus their attention on the present moment, observe their thoughts and feelings without judgment, and respond to difficult situations with greater calm and clarity. These practices have been shown to reduce anxiety, frustration, and sadness, and they can significantly improve self-awareness and emotional regulation.

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Conditions and Concerns We Commonly Address

Our team of child therapists has extensive experience working with a wide range of emotional, behavioral, and developmental concerns, including:

• Anxiety disorders (separation anxiety, generalized anxiety, social anxiety)
• Depression and mood difficulties
• ADHD
• Behavioral issues and oppositional behaviors
• Anger management difficulties
• Self-esteem and confidence issues
• Friendship and peer relationship challenges
• Family and life transitions (divorce, remarriage, relocation, loss)
• Grief and loss
• Social Anxiety
• Trauma
• Academic pressures and school-related stress

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How CBTAA Can Help Your Child

Every child deserves a space where they feel safe, validated and supported. With the right tools and guidance, your child can learn to navigate challenges, express their feelings in healthy ways, and build the foundation for a fulfilling, connected life.

At CBTAA, we’re here to partner with you in supporting your child's growth and well-being. Our experienced team provides compassionate, evidence-based child therapy for families across NYC, New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.

If you’re ready to take the next step, we’re here to help.

Contact us to schedule a free 15-minute consultation or learn more about how child therapy at CBTAA can support your child and your family.