Summer Break- Best Time to Start Therapy
It never fails; right around the start of the school year, parents report significant shifts in their children's adjustment, stress, and emotional regulation. Parents frantically try to help and support their children and often decide to begin therapy.
I call this the 'out of sight, out of mind, summer break conundrum.'
While their decision to start counseling should be praised, waiting until school resumes to begin treatment makes the whole process more complicated than it needs to be. The challenges parents face waiting to find a therapist until school begins include the following:
Finding a therapist with afternoon or evening appointments;
Scheduling conflicts with school, homework, extracurricular activities, and sports;
Trying to get an overly stressed kid or teen to dedicate an hour to improve their mental health when they want to relax.
Benefits of Therapy Over Summer:
1. Makes returning to school more seamless.
Often, kids and teens need support to transition back to school, especially when moving to middle or high school. Therapy helps children emotionally and mentally process and prepare for upcoming schedule changes, improve distress tolerance, and strengthen their emotional regulation abilities.
2. They go back to school with new skills.
Over the summer, kids and teens can learn and practice skills that help them academically and socially. They return with coping methods, increased confidence, improved conflict resolution skills, and strategies to start the year right.
3. Existing therapeutic foundation means they can work on the current issues.
Kids who attended counseling over the summer already have an established therapeutic rapport. When stressors arise from returning to school, they do not have to experience amplified stress about meeting a new therapist. By creating a therapeutic relationship before a triggering event, kids and teens can jump right into the work that needs to be done.
4. The work they did when stress was lower is more effective.
Though the initial reaction of many is to seek help and work on things in crises, we are more likely to retain information, process, and apply techniques when we are regulated, which is why summer is an excellent time for self-growth.
5. They are an established client.
While this factor has less to do with your child's mental health, it does, however, mean that you have already found a therapist and, with an existing relationship, are more likely to access afternoon or evening session times.
Though your child may be hesitant towards the idea of therapy during summer, their triumphant return to school will be a reminder of the great choice you made. I hope these benefits ease your decision to begin therapy!
