Helping you help your child

My name is Stephen Lott.  I am a child psychologist and I have worked exclusively with children and their families for over 30 years.  Children are amazing and wonderful beings, but at times it can be hard for them to communicate their pain and their needs, so they may act out their suffering in ways that are confusing and frustrating to their families, teachers and peers.  I don’t believe any child wants to be “bad.”  They want love and acceptance and approval just like everyone else but sometimes their thoughts and behaviors can get in the way.

All children deserve happiness

Something I tell almost every child I work with is one of our main goals is to help them be happier.  They have all agreed this would be a good thing. I do not believe happiness means buying a child everything they ask for or letting them do whatever they want, although this can be momentarily exciting it does not lead to true happiness. 

The happiness I seek for the children I work with comes from within; it is a positive sense of self-worth, and belonging in their family and in the world.  Look at your reasons for wanting to bring your child to therapy; it may be an emotional state, like anxiety or depression, it may be behaviors such as aggression or defiance, or be a difficulty they are experiencing such as struggling in school or problems maintaining friendships.  All of these things are obstacles to happiness.   Therefore my goal is to help you and your child remove or work with these obstacles to find true inner joy.