Face-to-Face

Adolescence is the psychosomatic bridge between childhood and adulthood. The drastic metamorphosis of the Body comes with a new set of challenges for the Mind and the Emotion that a teenager will have to face.

The main challenges include sexual exploration and the development of a unique identity and character. This is a massive psychological upheaval, which coincides with school pressure to succeed and choosing a career path. The search for their role in their budding intimate relationships, at home, in school, within their social and friendship circles and within society at large, increases teenage angst and can lead to isolation tendencies, anxiety disorders, eating disorders and other psychological difficulties. 

Usually a teenager is urged to seek out the help of a therapist at the suggestion of their family or school. 

The Integrative approach of the Mind-Body-Emotion Triptych offers a holistic exploration of teenage difficulties and positions itself with precision in regards to matters such as:

• sexual identity

• character building

• bullying

• professional orientation 

• social behaviour or isolation

• eating disorders

• social and body self-image

• exam-related stress management

• addiction (substance abuse, internet or video game addiction)

• changes in family status or structure (in cases of parental divorce, family loss, new family member, etc)

• violent or suicidal tendencies

Duration of one-on-one therapy sessions for teenagers: 60 minutes

Child psychology is the field of psychology that deals with children. Learning difficulties in children arise when a child enters school and can include a wide range of difficulties. 

Issues such as difficulty concentrating, exam-related anxiety, inability to remember, hypertension or hyperactivity, difficulty of verbal involvement, poor academic results despite studying, denial, the struggle of studying at home and many other learning difficulties could challenge students both at school and at home.

The development of learning is based on structures of comprehension, which are inextricably linked to a child’s cognitive ability. If these structures are not supported or are not chronologically compatible with school learning, this can lead to denial, distraction, attention deficits, inability to organise thoughts or actions, hyperactivity, phobias, a sense of failure and more. Academic failure or difficulty is drawn out and the child becomes marginalised at school and within the family, both of which often confuse the role of the student with the role of the child.

Using the evaluation method based on Piaget’s Theory, we can accurately “check” if and to what extent a child’s mental structures are “ahead” or “behind” the structures determined by its biological development. 

The specially arranged space is ideal for working with children. Here we can assist with:

1. The diagnosis and therapy of learning difficulties, based on the French model of the Piaget theory. A new and effective approach that leads to the reorganisation of the child or teenager’s cognitive structures.

2. Lectures for parents and educators, on the subject of: Learning Difficulties or Dyslexia?

3. Professional training on the new method of diagnosis and therapy based on the French model of the Piaget theory.

CLARIFICATIONS ON THE MENTAL AND EMOTIONAL PROCESS

At the core of cognitive support is the development, repositioning, organisation or reorganisation of a child’s mental structures, and not necessarily the search for the mental causes that led the child to a particular stage of mental development. This distinction is exceedingly crucial, helping families avoid discrimination, stigma or consequential anxiety. It should be stressed that learning difficulties are also for the most part based on genetic factors that can be augmented by the child’s surrounding environment, therefore parents are necessary collaborators throughout the whole therapy process, and not the ones to blame for a child’s learning difficulties. 

We distinguish between the emotional and cognitive support of a child; two processes which are dealt with separately in therapy. In the event that the psychologist comes across links between the child’s cognitive structures and the development of its emotional intelligence (the intelligence directly associated with the ability to perceive emotional signalling or messages) then, through cognitive support, she can include psychotherapy techniques that can support that specific emotional intelligence.

This distinction is necessary, as most children with learning difficulties or attention deficit disorders also have trouble expressing themselves or comprehending social or emotional messages. This can lead them to isolation, intense behaviour outbursts, such as denial, violence, disregard for rules, egocentric demands without considering other people, and more. Depending on how the learning difficulty, in school and at home, affects the child’s emotional development, then the rehabilitation is determined accordingly.

Duration of diagnosis of learning difficulties using the Piaget Method: 2.5 hours. A separate family therapy session with the child and both parents is mandatory before the assessment. Duration: 60 minutes.

Duration of one-on-one therapy sessions with children concerning learning difficulties: 60 minutes.

Why do people form romantic relationships instead of being alone?

When is a couple ready to start a family?

Are humans monogamous or polygamous beings?

Can adultery be forgiven?

Can a couple constructively disagree and how is that possible?

Can eroticism, love and passion coexist in a long-term relationship, or are they condemned to fall into routine?

Can the fear of insecurity stand in the way of a break-up and for how long?

How can we talk to children so as to protect them from the pain of divorce?

Is it possible, after years of being in a relationship, to withhold secrets about one’s sexual orientation, or to operate within a legal taboo framework out of fear?

Can a significant change in the life of one partner (career change or failure, death of a loved one, illness, etc.) irreversibly damage a relationship?

And if a couple doesn’t eventually break up, how can it continue harmoniously?

These and many other similar questions can trouble couples which, for varying reasons, are in a state of unrest. Reoccuring dysphoria, anger, sadness, emotional distancing, sexual abstinence, complaints, outbursts and roaring fights are just some examples that can lead to an eventual impasse, leading a couple to counselling.  

Together, we assess the situation and seek out the goals which can help one or both partners, or the whole family, work towards effective decision-making, to re-establish the previous balance, or to radically change and gradually build a new balance (in the form of a divorce, change of primary caregivers, change of occupation, etc).

Couples therapy, with or without children, is a process aimed at improving lives, and not necessarily set on “saving” a relationship. The notion of “improvement” is revealed by each couple in their own unique way with the help of the psychotherapeutic process.

For this reason, it is very important for a couple to decide that they want to attend a counselling session. In other words, for the improvement of their collective lives, and not to see who is right or wrong in a situation. Denial is common in one or other of the partners, out of fear of being exposed in a certain area or matter. Procrastination or avoiding counselling then results in further tension. Couples counselling is perhaps the most significant new start a couple can embark upon, and immediately helps relieve from the dysphoria of tension. It is not a court process, in search of a guilty party, but a process of searching for our emotional truth, which can liberate us in our communication with our significant other. 

Duration of couples counselling or family consulting therapy session: 60 minutes