Going to Therapy
A person who listens, talks to you, and offers support about your thoughts, feelings, what is going on in your life, and hard things that you have experienced
What is a therapist?
Some examples of traumatic events
What are car accidents, natural disasters, physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, witnessing violence at home, witnessing violence in the community (and more)?
A parent or caregiver committing an act that results in physical injury to a child or teen (like leaves red marks, cuts, welts, bruises, muscle sprains, or broken bones - even if the injury was unintentional)
What is physical abuse?
Examples of emotional abuse
What is using threats or intimidation, insulting or guilting someone to make them feel bad, name-calling, only acting loving towards someone when they do what you want them to (and more)?
Things you do in therapy
What is talking about your thoughts and feelings, talking about hard stuff that has happened, learning skills to help you feel better, play games, learning more about things that have happened to you (and more)?
Ways that your body reacts when you are in a dangerous situation
What is heart beating fast, feeling hot or sweaty, feeling like you have a lot of energy in your body, startling easily, hypervigilance (being on the lookout for danger)?
Types of kids and teens who experience physical abuse
All kinds of kids and teens - can happen to any kids of any gender, age, race, socioeconomic status, part of the country/world. It doesn't have anything to do with who the kid is!
Appropriate ways for caregivers to discipline their kids
What is: time out, taking away or giving privileges, having the child do something to make up for harm that they caused (and more)
Length of time that kids or teens are in therapy
What is it depends! Usually somewhere between a few months to a couple of years (it depends how much better a client is doing & what the family and therapist want)
A condition when, after someone experiences one or more traumatic event(s), they continue to feel affected by the event for months or years after it happen. It affects the way that they feel and act.
What is Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)?
Person who is responsible for physical abuse happening
What is: ALWAYS the adult(s) who are committing the abuse & never the kid/teen it happens to (no matter what they did before it happened)
Number of reported cases of kids who experienced physical abuse in the United States each year
What is 149,000 reported cases of physical abuse (actual numbers are probably higher - approximate answers work!)
Reasons kids or teens would need or want to go to therapy
What is experiencing an upsetting event; having feelings, thoughts, or behaviors that are making it hard to do things; feeling depressed or anxious (and more examples)?
Some symptoms of PTSD
Having strong reactions in your mind or body when you are reminded of the traumatic event, avoiding thoughts, people, places, and things that remind you of what happened, feeling angry/irritable, feeling depressed, thinking badly of yourself, not being able to sleep, hypervigilance, having trouble focusing (and more)
Reasons that kids or teens do not tell a safe adult that they have or are being abused
What is: they think people might not believe them, the person abusing them threatens that they will be in danger if they tell, they do not want the people involved in the abuse to get in trouble, they are not sure if what is happening is wrong, they do not have adults in their life that they trust (and more reasons)
Reasons the body might have a fight, flight, or freeze response in a dangerous situation
What is to protect you by giving you the energy to fight off an attacker, run away from a dangerous situation, or shut down to minimize how much you can get hurt (if it is too late to fight or run away)?
The only reasons a therapist would ever share what you talk about in therapy with other people
What is (1) when a therapist learns that a kid under 18 has been abused or neglected and (2) when someone is at risk of hurting themselves or other people?
Reasons why someone would want to avoid thinking about or being around things that remind them of their traumatic events
What is: being reminded of the trauma makes them feel overwhelmed or worse; avoiding things that remind someone of their trauma makes it easier to function day-to-day without feeling bad (and more reasons)
Reasons that an adult might have for physically hurting a teen or child
What is: getting out of control because they are angry at the child or about something else, taking discipline or punishment too far by accident or on purpose, having mental health problems that makes the adult act out of control (and more)
Reasons avoiding thinking about traumatic events doesn't always work well
What is your body and mind might still have other trauma symptoms, you still might get reminded of what happened when you don't want to and feel activated, memories might still pop into your head when you don't want them to?