Guacimara Hernández: "There must be family agreements in parenting".

Psychologist Guacimara Hernández talks to us about child and adolescent therapy.

Childhood and adolescence is a phase of life in which we are especially exposed to certain psychological problems which, if consolidated, can mark the development of the person during adulthood. That is why it is important to detect them quickly and intervene in time.

That is why child and adolescent psychotherapy is essential, and in this interview with the psychologist in this interview to the psychologist Guacimara Hernández we will talk about its main components..

Interview with Guacimara Hernández: Child and adolescent psychotherapy, the most common disorders in childhood and how to treat them.

Guacimara Hernández Santana is a health psychologist with a practice in the city of Arrecife, where she treats people of all ages. In this interview she talks to us about child and adolescent therapy.

Is it necessary for a child to have developed a psychological disorder in order to benefit from psychotherapy?

With or without a diagnosed psychological disorder, a child can benefit from therapy; it is not necessary for him or her to have a disorder to see a specialist. We must open our minds to the possible aspects that a psychologist treats, from the disorder to the fear of speaking in public, the use of study techniques, self-esteem problems, lack of concentration or future fears, among others.

Nowadays therapies are fundamental for us to manage any future problems, I always recommend people to have an initial psychological assessment and from there we explore what we can work on.

What are the main stages of the child and adolescent therapy process?

Child and adolescent therapies are marked by six major psychological structures.

First, the initial evaluation: this is where I make direct contact with the patient and his or her environment in order to obtain as much information as possible and thus find all the tools to achieve the desired goal. Here I need the patient's open expression and honesty.

Then I establish the hypothesis: here I establish a series of objectives, and I propose an adequate and effective psychological intervention.

Thirdly, I let the patient and his family know the goals I wish to achieve and we get down to work; I propose an intervention plan in which we are going to achieve the objectives we have proposed.

In the treatment phase we start the intervention and we inform the parents, creating guidelines and strategies, not only to solve their current problem but also so that in the future the child does not suffer other uncomfortable situations; we will teach him/her to think in a more productive way, to feel...

Throughout the follow-up we are applying techniques and checking that the patient carries out the new skills in his daily life and, therefore, we carry out a continuous follow-up.

As we achieve what was established at the beginning of the therapy, we are already considering the end of the therapy, reaching the main objective that led to ask for psychological help.

From what you have observed in your practice, what are the most common psychological disorders among adolescents?

There are quite a few, but most often I see in adolescents generalized anxiety disorders, ADHD, conduct disorder, social phobia or defiant disorder.

In adolescents we find the difficulty of age, that is why catching the case early is as feasible as possible, since at this age in most cases there are many mood swings, passivity...

And what are the most common psychological disorders among young children?

Here we have again the adhd as one of the most visited in consultation, also include learning disorders, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), anxiety disorders or eating disorders. These ages are very easy to work with, since we catch it in time and we do very fun dynamics to obtain the expected result.

How do you make a young child understand that he/she has developed a pathology such as, for example, ADHD?

We must act in the same way as we did before the diagnosis so that they do not see that it is something strange but that they normalize it; as they are small, we explain to them that there is a little problem (depending on their age we use several different mechanisms of explanation) for which their body cannot stay still for a long time, so we are going to work so that they control those impulses, language, etc.

As a psychologist, what do you think are the main theoretical principles of child and adolescent therapy that parents can apply when raising their children at home?

Each case is different, but above all, if there is a stable base, there must be fluid communication, limits on rewards or punishments, established schedules and also certain family agreements.