Children and Youth Counselling

At In Focus, we provide child and youth counselling to help young people navigate the emotional and social challenges of growing up in today’s fast-paced world. Whether struggling with school stress, relationships, self-identity, or family conflicts, our counsellors offer a safe, non-judgmental space for children and youth to express themselves and develop healthier coping strategies.

“We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth the future.”
– Franklin D. Roosevelt, former United States President

Bridging the Gap: Child and Youth Counselling for Support and Connection

Growing up in a fast-paced Singapore can be novel and exciting. Yet it can also be stressful and intimidating for our children and youth. At times, despite best efforts, our children and youth may feel anxious and down, alone in these struggles, and not understood by those who matter most.

Parents, on the other hand, want the best for their children. Seeing them growing up can be stressful and confusing, especially when we see the children struggling and behaving in ways that are worrying for the parents. Parents may feel at a loss as to how best to support their children or adolescents. This is especially so when parents’ efforts strain the parent-child relationship instead of bearing the results that parents hoped for.

To Children and Youth:

At times, the challenges you face might seem too overwhelming. You may feel lost and alone and misunderstood by friends or the important people in your life. It is normal to feel this way as you navigate through the unfamiliar grounds of discovering yourself amidst the changes in life. However, you do not have to go through this by yourself. Seeking professional help by involving a counsellor can help you with what you are currently going through. Common issues that child counselling and youth counselling services can help with are:

School and social related issues such as stress from studies, peer pressure, feelings of loneliness
Difficulties in interpersonal or romantic relationships
Difficulties managing emotions and moods swings
Self-esteem, self-image, self-identity, and sexual identity issues
Adjustment to changes and transitions
Family-related conflicts
Depression and anxiety
Phobias
Grief the loss of a loved one
Traumatic experiences

These issues can affect your emotional well-being and mental health if not attended to in a constructive and healthy manner.

With counselling support, you can grow to become more self-aware, develop greater self-understanding and learn new and helpful ways of coping and communicating, so as to feel more at ease and more connected to the ones you love and care about.

Our counsellors at In Focus will provide you with a safe and non-judgmental environment for you to talk about your difficulties and concerns so that you are not alone in trying to resolve your issues. For constancy in care and support, a dedicated professional counsellor will journey with you in this process. Contact us now to find out how our counsellors can support you in this time.

To Parents:

There is an increasing awareness of youth mental health concerns in Singapore. Youth and child counselling services are more accessible, yet young people seem to delay seeking help for various reasons. Some are concerned about possible stigma, some are not sure where is the right place to go, and others are unable to obtain parents’ understanding and support for them to seek help. Some parents may believe that their children have to learn to overcome and outgrow their struggles on their own, while other parents may feel that there are no real issues as long as the child is doing well academically.

The emotional struggles faced by youths can be very real and daunting. Professional counselling and therapy sessions can be one of the best gifts you can give your child at this stage of their life. Counselling can be beneficial for your child if you observe that your child has been having difficulties coping in areas in life and exhibiting behavioural issues of concern such as:

Decrease in self-confidence and negative self-image
Mood swings and difficulties managing emotions
Self-harm behaviours or explicit talk about suicide
Sleeping difficulties
Changes in appetite
Body image issues
School refusal
Withdrawal from others
Strained relationship with family members
Addictions

Why Counselling Matters for Your Child?

Child and youth counselling offers essential support for young people as they navigate the emotional challenges of growing up. Although school counsellors are a valuable resource, some children and youth may feel uncomfortable seeking help within the school environment for various reasons. Issues at school, relationships, and family can often be a lot to manage. While there could be a myriad of challenges in a young person’s life, often children and youth can be helped through counselling to address and manage:

The stress of balancing schoolwork, facing perceived expectations, and experiencing social pressures can take a toll on children and teens. Child counselling in Singapore offers them a place where they can learn to manage this stress more effectively. With the guidance of our counsellors, young people can understand themselves better in the face of these experiences and learn to manage related stress and emotions in a healthier manner.

It is normal for young people to feel anxious about school, friendships, family relationships and growing up. Youth counselling in Singapore can help them learn to articulate what they are concerned or worried about and gain support and broaden perspective. With anxiety counselling support, they can develop their confidence and skills in managing uncertainties, gain a sense of effective control over their feelings, and grow to approach challenges with more groundedness and a clearer mind.

At times, children and teens may experience feelings of sadness or hopelessness, especially when they are faced with a situation or outcome that differs from their expectations. Depression counselling provides a safe environment for them to express their emotions and begin working through these feelings. Through open, supportive conversations with our counsellors, young people can begin to rediscover hope and take steps towards improving their emotional well-being.

Issues in the family such as sibling’s difficulties, family dynamics or parent and child conflicts can impact or influence the child or youth in many different ways. It ranges from self-esteem, difficulty coping, social relationships issues, academic performance as well as their emotional wellbeing. Whether the child is directly involved in the conflicts at home, or witnessing the conflicts, there is an impact on how the child views himself/herself, relationships, and others; and also affects the child’s behaviours.

When they are unable to express or communicate how they feel about what they experience at home, they may carry more intense emotions of anxiety, anger, guilt, shame, sadness. When not attended to, they may manifest in behavioural issues such as acting out, inappropriate relationships, withdrawal, risky behaviors. At the same time, there may be more difficulty also with school performance, social relationships and with developing a healthy view of self. Child and youth counselling can provide a space for a child express problems or issues he or she is experiencing at home, and help them address the root of their emotions or behavioural issues.

Children and youth are not born with social skills to manage peer relationships. The skills need to be learnt and acquired as part of growing up. Peer relationship issues are bound to arise as it’s a normal part of life. Being exposed to various external influences such as traditional or social media, the child may end up learning from such external influences and pick up ways to manage peer relationship issues that are unhelpful or counter-productive. These may include isolation and withdrawal to avoid pain, violence and aggression to get what they want, or placate and pander to feel safe and wanted.

Actively developing social skills in an intentional manner is important for children and youth. These skills help them build friendships, manage differences in peer relationships, communicate boundaries to protect themselves, learn how to work as a team, develop awareness of others’ perspective without losing their own perspective, and solve problems effectively. These are essential skills for their overall well-being and development and also to thrive in our society. Through child and youth counselling, the child can understand better what their needs are in certain peer situations and learn to develop and apply appropriate social skills to meet those needs in a responsible and effective manner.

Children and youth, like adults, do experience grief and loss. It is common that as children or youth grow and enter different stages of their own growth, they may lose friendships or relationships due to incompatibility, conflicts, emotional distance or physical separation. For children and young people who have developed strong attachment, familiarity and bondedness with their friends, they may experience strong feelings of grief and loss when encountering such a loss. A child may also experience other types of losses such as a death of a significant person, passing of a beloved pet, a move away from a familiar environment such as change of school, or a break-up of the family due to parents’ divorce or separation.

With grief comes a myriad of emotions as well such as sadness, confusion, anxiety, anger and guilt. Child and youth counselling also offers a space to facilitate the child or youth to grieve the loss in a healthy and age appropriate way. Without healthy grieving, the feelings may surface as behavioural issues. A child grieving a loss is not weakness nor a child being “difficult”, but a normal part of human experience. Through grief counselling, the child experiences support, learns to honour what matters to him or her, and over time, be able to see the loss with a different perspective that gives life meaning and is important part of the child’s development.

Many young people may struggle with self-doubt about themselves or struggle with self-identity. They may look to peers or external validation as the benchmark on how they should be and what is acceptable or approved. Yet, this way of looking solely externally all the time for approval can lead to feelings of inadequacy and confusion about who they are and what matters to them. As a consequence, the youth may struggle to develop a healthy self-esteem and sense of who they are and their worthiness. Youth counselling can help youth recognise their strengths and develop beliefs about themselves that are important to a more positive self-image and healthy self-esteem.

Youth & Child Counselling: Finding the Right Support for Young People

Youth and child counselling is designed to support young people through the unique challenges that children and young people face at their stage of life. Counselling help for children and youth at In Focus can be through:

Individual Counselling

Individual counselling is where the child or youth can share what they are experiencing and their thoughts and feelings with our counsellors one-to-one. This setting is ideal for young people who feel alone with their personal struggles and have not felt safe or possible to open up to anyone. Our counsellors create the conditions to help the child experience safety in sharing their experience where they feel heard, valued, accepted and trusted. These may range from certain significant or impactful events such as losing important friendships, experiencing bullying, passing on a loved one, or facing setbacks in academics or extracurricular activities; to the overall sense of feelings of loneliness, overwhelm, anxiety or even anger even if they do not know why they feel so.

Family Counselling

Family counselling involves family members working with our counsellors in the counselling process to support the child as well as to collaboratively address issues in the family that impact both the child as well as the family members. Such issues range from communication difficulties, conflicts in the family, differing goals and expectations between family members to major life or family transitions, such as divorce, illness in the family or loss of significant figure in the family. The main goal is to improve understanding between family members, develop empathy, learn to communicate more openly, and strengthen familial bonds. This creates a healthier, more supportive environment for everyone and improves the relationship between parent and child. With an improved relationship with parents as a secure base, the child has the strength to also face the challenges in life knowing and trusting he or she is loved, valued and supported.

When Therapy & Counselling Can Be Beneficial For Your Child

It is important to identify and address the issues of concern at an early age. Delays in seeking help may adversely affect the child’s mental and emotional health and hinder the process of your child reaching his or her full potential in life. Conversely, seeking therapy and counselling for your child in a timely manner will help in your child’s emotional and mental health, improve their connections with the family and loved ones, and grow in resilience to work towards their goals.

At In Focus, our counsellor or therapist will help your child make sense of what he or she is experiencing and develop skills to respond healthily and responsibly to their experiences, problem-solve, and communicate what is going on for them. A key part of the work is in helping your child obtain a greater understanding of themselves and learn to identify, express, and manage intense emotions like fear, sadness, shame, anger, confusion, guilt, and curiosity in an age-appropriate and constructive manner.

Through these counselling sessions, your child will also develop confidence and know how to reach out for help where needed and not feel alone in their struggles. Our counsellors or therapists may also recommend and offer family therapy and counselling or other areas of individual counselling to complement the work that is done with the child.

How do I know if my child needs counselling services?

Every child reacts to stress or challenges differently. It is important to be attentive to notice changes in your child’s behaviour or mood. If they seem more withdrawn, anxious, irritable or face problems or trouble at school, with friends or peers, youth counselling can be the avenue for your child to receive the help needed. At In Focus, we take a caring, non-judgemental approach in helping your child understand himself or herself and be able to express themselves while learning ways and skills to handle their struggles more effectively and grow in the process.

What should I expect from youth counselling services?

Youth counselling is about offering a safe place for young people to open up about their feelings, concerns, and experiences. Sessions are designed to help them manage the emotions that they feel such as stress or anxiety from academic pressure, peer pressure, or other expectations they feel they have to meet The aim is to empower them to handle life’s challenges in a healthy and balanced manner, helping them to grow in confidence and emotional strength.

Can counselling help my child with behavioural issues?

It can be worrying for parents when you see your child not behaving the way you hope they would, or when your child exhibits behaviour that is not characteristic of what you understand of your child. Counselling can help both the parent and child understand the child deeper and what is really behind the choice of behaviour. Often, our counsellor will also engage the parent together with the child in the counselling process so that both parent and child can better understand each other’s needs and concerns. Apart from individual counselling for the child, family counselling involving the parent is an important part of providing support for the child as well as improve the communication and relationship between parent and child which is foundational for the child’s development.

How can family counselling support my child’s development?

Family counselling can support your child’s development and emotional growth as it is a process where the family develops and grows together. By working through challenges together – such as addressing breakdowns in communication, identifying mismatch of expectations and related conflicts, shifting away from unhealthy or unhelpful ways of relating with each other to more fruitful ways of interacting – family counselling can be instrumental. It could lead to changes in a family environment towards one that is even more supportive, respectful, trusting and accepting of each other as well as more nurturing for the child. It helps family members, including the child, to understand each other better and strengthens the bonds and support that are essential to your child’s well-being and growth.

Is family counselling always required alongside individual counselling for the child or youth, and how often are the counselling sessions?

Family counselling involving one of the key parental figures together with the child or youth is often recommended for the reasons above. The frequency of family sessions and the frequency of the individual sessions may or may not be the same. Frequency of sessions and how the sessions are structured in terms of family or individual sessions is on a case-by-case basis, and may also differ across different stages of the counselling process. Our counsellors will work collaboratively with the family and the child, to decide and also review from time-to-time.

ABOUT US

At In Focus, we empathise with our clients as they go through myriad of life’s problems, stresses and challenges which are overwhelming at times. As these happened to us too. The only difference is, it is our profession to help others overcome these life hurdles so as to live life to the fullest.

OUR SERVICES

We have a range of services available for your consideration depending on your needs. You can get in touch with us for coaching services, corporate consultation, professional training, counselling and psychotherapy services. Please visit our services page to see what we offer.

CONTACT US

Phone: +65 8725 9303

Email: enquiry@in-focus.com.sg