In early life children may experience many different losses as they grow up. As they have their own thinking process and longings which are innocent and subtle. There are many circumstances where a child may feel the brunt of grief such as a friend moves away, a loss of a cherished item, a child moving grade may mean leaving behind a favorite teacher, a pet dies, a family member has a serious illness, a grandparent, neighbour or family friend passes away. Sometimes parental relationships end and with divorce or separation which also brings change to the whole the family. AWC Dubai specializes in Grief Management for Young Adults and Children.
Children grieve differently to adults. In fact, you may not recognize that your child is grieving. You may not realize the degree to which a loss or the "sad parts" of children's books and movies or a news report about a tragic event affects them.
We encourage you to take it seriously and attend this on priority basis before their grief escalates to other mental health issues.
They might have trouble concentrating, making decisions or get easily confused. You might see nightmares, lack of motivation, or a decline in school performance and self-esteem, regressed behavior and or bed wetting.
Children tend to go in and out of the grief process - crying one minute, then playing the next. They may also be unsettled, express anxiety about the safety of others or feel responsible for their parents.
Children may feel sick more often, experience headaches, stomach aches, tiredness, lack of energy or hyperactivity. You may also notice changes in their eating habits and sleeping patterns.
Children will be curious about death and dying and may ask a lot of questions. They may start to question why this happened and where the person might be now.
It’s common for children to either withdraw from family and friends, or become more dependent or clingy. They might also attempt to take on the role of an older sibling or adult who has died.
They might show more challenging or demanding behaviour as they try to get care or reassurance from you. Themes of death may show up in their drawings or play. Behaviour may also show regression like bed wetting.
Grief looks different in children and teens. The loss is lifelong, and they often become isolated in their pain, confusion, and self-blame. Safety and security are replaced by trauma and anxiety. Their understanding of death, and their responses to the grief that follows, are largely influenced by their developmental level, making their treatment much different from that of an adult.
At American Wellness Center based in Dubai Healthcare City our western trained and well qualified child psychiatrists, child psychologists, pediatric neuropsychologists and therapists provide evaluation and grief counselling that can help children who are going through a grievance. We offer individual and group therapies for children of all ages based on an initial evaluation of 50 minutes. After the evaluation the clinician will diagnose a treatment plan based on symptoms and severity of the child’s condition.
We encourage to follow up with the treatment plan of your child’s therapist to obtain maximum results.
Visit our clinic in Dubai Healthcare City or give us a call today.
