TREATMENT FOR CHILDREN
CHILDREN Ages 4 - 12: Dr. Herrick sees young children in her Virginia office's therapeutic play room, which contains toys, crafts, a play kitchen and a sandbox. Older children, including pre-teens, often find that playing while talking makes it easier to think about problems and worries, so cards, board games and art materials become an essential part of the treatment.
Therapy for children is focused on helping them begin to identify their feelings and thoughts about the situations and events in their lives that distress them. Therapy helps children understand how these feelings shape their behavior so they can begin to have choices in how they behave.
Dr. Herrick's work with the children of parents who are separating or going through a divorce is focused on helping the children express their thoughts and feelings related to this difficult change in their family. She works to bring their voices back to their parents in order to help these parents make decisions which will be in their children's best interest. Dr. Herrick also focuses on helping these children cope effectively with the loss and complex feelings that emerge during a divorce, and on helping them feel confident and strong as they begin to recover and adjust to the changes required of them when their parents divorce.