Child Psychology
Divorce affects all family members, and minor children often have a difficult time understanding why Mommy and Daddy no longer want to live together. While older children may understand the concepts of falling out of love, infidelity and irreconcilable differences, they may still need help coping with the effects of divorce.
Children of all ages often wonder if they caused the divorce and believe if they were “good”, Mom and Dad would still be together. For these reasons, it’s important to offer your children opportunities to speak with mental health professionals to learn about divorce, why divorce occurs and how their lives will be affected by divorce.
While many parents believe that they should be the ones to help their children deal with divorce and its impact on their lives, it’s difficult to remain objective, especially where your children are concerned. A mental health professional, on the other hand, is trained to remain impartial and explore all aspects of the divorce and its impact on the children.
What you can do as a parent is explain to your children that seeing a therapist does not mean there’s something wrong with them. A good child therapist will be able to establish rapport with your children and help them feel comfortable sharing their feelings, concerns and fears.
Below you will find some useful child psychology resources to help provide your children the additional support they need to help cope with the effects of divorce.
- American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy
- Kidshealth.org
- WebMD
- Psychology Today
- Goodtherapy.org
To learn more about child psychology resources or to ask a free legal question, please contact the Harris Law Firm today or see our main site for other info and referrals.
