Category: Adolescent Treatments

Anger is a fundamental emotion that everyone experiences from time to time. Anger affects your mental and physical health, and may interfere with one’s interpersonal relationships. Learning to recognize and express anger appropriately can make a big difference in your life. Techniques of anger management can help avoid destructive behaviour, communicate with others effectively, solve problems and reach your goals. The goal of anger management is to reduce both your emotional feelings and the physiological arousal that anger causes. You can’t get rid of, or avoid, the things or the people that enrage you, nor can you change them, but you can learn to control your reactions. Anger management begins with understanding the causes and signs of anger, and teaches you ways of monitoring yourself in such circumstances that prevent an anger outburst. Our psychologists and clinical psychologists will help you find out what it is that triggers your anger, and then to develop strategies to keep those triggers from tipping you over the edge.

Nutrition is an important part of a healthy lifestyle. Without proper nutrition, one does not have enough energy to make it through the day. Also, health declines without proper nutrition, making one more susceptible to illness and disease. Also, certain problems like Eating Disorders and obesity often lead to malnutrition which, in the long run, can lead to serious diseases. Diet counselling helps the person to create an action plan so as to adopt a healthier lifestyle and diet. Through diet counselling, individuals can learn more about how their food choices affect their health. It is an ongoing process in which the counsellor works with an individual to assess his or her usual dietary intake and identify areas where change is needed. He/she provides information, educational materials, support, and follow-up to help the individual make and maintain the needed dietary changes.

Stress is a normal part of life. In small quantities, stress is good; it can motivate you and help you become more productive. However, too much stress, or a strong response to stress can be harmful. Stress can come from any situation or thought that makes you feel frustrated, angry, or anxious. Everyone sees situations differently and has different coping skills. For this reason, no two people will respond exactly the same way to a given situation. Managing stress is all about taking charge: taking charge of your thoughts, your emotions, your schedule, your environment, and the way you deal with problems. The ultimate goal is a balanced life, with time for work, relationships, relaxation, and fun – plus the resilience to hold up under pressure and meet challenges head on. Stress management starts with identifying the sources of stress in your life. Once you know your potential stressors, you can either (a) change the situation – by avoiding or altering the situation or (b) change your reaction – by accepting or adapting to the stressors. Since everyone has a unique response to stress, there is no “one size fits all” solution to managing it. No single method works for everyone or in every situation, so one has to experiment with different techniques and strategies. Focus on what makes you feel calm and in control. By having a take-charge approach and a positive attitude, you can reduce stress in your life by nurturing yourself.

The family is the foundation on which most societies are built. Family therapy might be necessary where there are disturbances in the family system. Often the problems that a person faces can be understood by going deeper into the interactions between the family members. It must be understood that the exchange between the family members involve a form of communication which can lead to either harmony or disharmony in relationships. Family therapy explicitly focuses on altering the interactions between or among family members and seeks to improve the functioning of the family as a unit, or its subsystems, and the functioning of individual members of the family. By increasing the problem-solving capacity and communication within the family system, the individual client can be helped to recover from his problem. Family therapy is a recognized form of treatment in major psychiatric problems such as schizophrenia, depression, alcohol or drug use, conversion related disorders eating disorders, and bipolar disorder.

MET is a client-centered counselling method that focuses on exploring and resolving ambivalence toward change. The main goal of MET is to evoke and strengthen a person’s intrinsic motivation to make positive changes in their life. It aims to increase an individual’s motivation and commitment to change certain behaviours. It is commonly used in the treatment of substance abuse, but it can also be applied to various other areas, such as health-related behaviours or personal goals.

MET typically involves a structured set of sessions, during which the therapist and the individual collaboratively work together to explore and clarify goals, assess the individual’s readiness to change, and identify potential barriers or challenges. MET consists of four carefully planned and individualized treatment sessions. The first two sessions focus on structured feedback from the initial assessment, future plans, and motivation for change. The final two sessions at the midpoint and end of treatment provide opportunities for the therapist to reinforce progress, encourage reassessment, and provide an objective perspective on the process of change.

Techniques of MET :
• Expressing empathy:
• Developing discrepancy
• Avoiding confrontation
• Rolling with resistance
• Supporting self-efficacy

MET aims to enhance motivation, resolve ambivalence, and increase the likelihood of successful behaviour change by empowering individuals to take ownership of their decisions and actions.

Counselling professional assistance in coping with personal problems, including emotional, behavioural, vocational, marital, educational, rehabilitation, and life-stage (e.g., retirement) problems. The counsellor makes use of techniques of active listening, guidance, advice, discussion, clarification, and the administration of tests. During the counselling process, the counsellor and client engage in an interpersonal process as they attempt to define, address, and resolve specific problems of the client on a one-to-one basis. Counselling is a form of confidential helping which seeks to elicit each client’s innate internal resources, coping abilities and strengths. Counsellors may help clients with specific problems in the present, but they may also support clients with long-term problems stemming from the past too. Counselling takes place both in individual and group settings, One of the factors that make it special is the quality of helper listening, which involves attending to what the client means to say, as well as what he or she is actually saying.  Confidentiality is another important component of the counsellor– client relationship that sets it apart from several other helping activities. Another important aspect of counselling is the concept of client empowerment. In simple terms, this indicates a confidence in the innate potential for self-determination which clients are believed to have. This capacity for self-determination may not always be apparent to the client, and certainly in times of stress or emotional upheaval it may become blocked or temporarily obscured. Counselling can help by enabling clients to look more closely at their experiences and to clarify them. When this is achieved, ways of addressing difficulties can be devised by clients themselves, and strategies for change can be implemented. The non-judgmental and empathic presence of a trained helper facilitates the processes just described, and the fact that counsellors do not expect any reciprocal help from clients (the kind of help friends might expect from each other, for example) means that clients feel valued and respected in a way they may not have experienced before. Nor do counsellors impose conditions or expectations on the clients they help, and even when goals and objectives are an integral part of the counselling contract, these are freely negotiated between client and counsellor.

As they grow and develop, all children encounter situations where they feel worried, nervous and sometimes even scared. Some behaviours are not helpful to humans such as aggression and impulsive behaviours. However aggressive and impulsive behaviour are often used by children in response to stress.

Coping skills are what we think and what we do to help us get through difficult situations. A child begins to learn and use different coping skills from the time they are born. Through Coping skills training, one can build on the skills they are already using, as well as assist them to learn new ones.

It includes interventions aimed at increasing an individual’s ability to manage a variety of often uncomfortable or anxiety-provoking situations, ranging from relatively normal or situational problems (e.g., test taking, divorce) to diagnosed disorders (e.g., phobias). It also explores on how to help the child manage strong emotions, promote helpful thinking and assist them to break down tasks into smaller, manageable chunks.

The types of skills taught are tailored to the individuals as well as the situation and can involve increasing cognitive, behavioural, and affective proficiencies.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a form of psychotherapy that focuses on promoting psychological flexibility and helping individuals live meaningful lives. ACT is based on the premise that psychological suffering arises from the struggle to control or avoid unpleasant thoughts, emotions, and experiences. Instead of attempting to eliminate or suppress these negative experiences, ACT encourages individuals to accept them as normal and inevitable parts of human existence.

The primary goal is to develop psychological flexibility, which involves being fully present in the present moment, open to experiences, and committed to taking action in alignment with personal values. ACT aims to enhance individuals’ psychological well-being by fostering acceptance, mindfulness, and values-driven action. It has been successfully applied to various mental health conditions, including anxiety disorders, depression, substance abuse, chronic pain, and interpersonal difficulties.

ACT employs various therapeutic techniques and exercises to help individuals develop psychological flexibility and apply these principles in their daily lives. These techniques may include mindfulness meditation, experiential exercises, metaphors, values-based goal setting, and behaviour change strategies.

Objectives:

Acceptance
Cognitive Defusion
Being Present
Self-as-Context
Values Clarification
Committed Action

Social skills represent a set of competencies that

(1) facilitate initiating and maintaining positive social relationships,

(2) contribute to peer acceptance and friendship development,

(3) result in satisfactory school adjustment, and

(4) allow individuals to cope with and adapt to the demands of the

social environment. Deficits in social skills play a significant role in the development and maintenance of many emotional and behavioural disorders of childhood and adolescence. Social skills training is a form of behaviour therapy used by therapists to help persons who have difficulties relating to other people. The major goal of social skills training is teaching children and young adults about the verbal as well as nonverbal behaviours involved in social interactions to improve the person’s ability to perceive and act on social cues.  Therapists begin by breaking down complex social behaviours into smaller portions.  A common focus is the improvement of communication skills. The skills might be divided further into such subjects as beginning, holding, and ending conversations, or expressing feelings in appropriate ways. Social skills training is considered a widely accepted component of multi-method approaches to the treatment of many emotional, behavioural and developmental disorders.

Remedial education is suited for students of average or high intellectual abilities who are struggling in school. Such students usually do not have intellectual challenges but face difficulties in core academic areas of reading, writing and mathematics. It is also suitable for children diagnosed with Specific Learning Disability and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Designed to provide students with individual attention via one-on-one sessions, remedial education not only helps students to learn the skills required to cope with their peers, but also helps build their self-confidence and self-esteem.

Worried that your child may require Remedial Education?

1. Does your child have trouble coping with their school work?
2. Does your child consistently score low grades despite studying?
3. Is your child a slow reader or makes unexpected errors when reading aloud?
4. Does your child struggle in one area of studies, like reading, writing, or mathematics, performs well in the others?
5. Does your child have difficulty staying focussed in class?
6. Does your child find it hard to follow their class teacher’s pace?

Treatments that can help your child:

One-on-one Classes

Psychoeducation

Psychometric Assessment

Attention Training