We just celebrated the last high school graduations of the season yesterday and find ourselves in the thick of the sun (and humidity in the South) and fun of the SUMMER.
All of us at The Wise Family are having conversations with your families about continuing and beginning counseling during the summer months. Camp, vacation, and lazy days by the pool can all interrupt the regular rhythm that is the foundation of supportive therapeutic work for kids and teens. It also isn’t uncommon that the stressors inherent during the school year lesson in the haze of summer, only to creep right back up again come August.
Skills
Feelings
Behaviors
Friends
Stress
Wellness
Coping strategies
and more…
But we WILL NOT talk about school in July. School isn’t EVERYTHING so why would we work on school-based stuff 12 months a year?
So what is there to do together? And why use our precious summer time to schedule counseling?
Here are a few GREAT REASONS TO SCHEDULE counseling for your kids and teens –
It can be so hard for families to commit to regular, weekly counseling visits with an already packed schedule of school, sports, family obligations and…oh yeah, WORK. We often struggle fitting everyone in within the brief afterschool-before bed hours of 4-7. Summer opens up a HUGE number of options – including morning before the pool, mid-afternoon after a camp morning and late afternoon when the sun is still shining and no one is crabby yet.
EQ is the new IQ – Emotional Intelligence. We have some amazing strategies for building kids’ emotion quotient. And PLAY is one of them. PLAY helps us to connect to kids and support them in becoming aware of their feelings and how their behaviors impact others. This increase in self-awareness can help improve stress management, emotional regulation, relationships among peers and family members, and can just make your house SO MUCH CALMER.
It can be fun to hang out all day and do nothing – but most kids end up playing endless hours of video games, watching YouTube videos, or even sleeping until mid-afternoon. A regular schedule of counseling sessions can help build some structure into an open-ended week, and give kids a sense of accomplishment. Some kids actually report being bored in the summer and counseling can give them an opportunity for productive social interaction.
If you are ready to improve your child’s EQ and put a bit more structure into your family’s summer, give us a call to get hooked in!
Until next week, Be Wise!
“Dr. Amy talks about moving children from being externally-driven to internally-driven…and she helps you get there!”
— Parent of 15-year-old daughter“I don’t think we could survive our kid without The Wise Family. Our clinician is so patient and such a compassionate person. She helps our child feel so in control of his body, and us so in control of our parenting.”
— Parent of 6 year old client
