How Counseling Can Help A Child With Oppositional Defiant Disorder Cope

If your child has oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), then you need to find the right resources to support him or her. Oppositional defiant disorder is condition that causes a child to display a continuous pattern of defiant, hostile, annoying and uncooperative behavior towards people in charge. This condition can disrupt your family, home life, school performance and other relationships. Here  is how counseling can help your child with ODD.

Get Support From A Child Therapist

Your child can benefit from working with a child therapist to help cope with ODD. Individual therapy is a good option when your child has a hard time controlling his or her behavior. A therapist who specializes in psychotherapy can help your child to gain control over his behavior. He or she will address all the issues that are contributing to your child acting out.

Anger Management Therapy

It common for children with ODD to have trouble controlling their emotions. This leads to having anger issues, which means your child can benefit from going to anger management therapy. Anger management therapy employs a variety of techniques to help your cope with everyday situations. Some strategies used may include problem solving, goal setting, trigger identification, relaxation techniques and recognition of consequences.

Learn About Their Emotions

Children who show signs of oppositional behavior on a continuous basis have a hard time with expressing emotions. It can benefit your child to learn about his or her emotions. This approach can help your child to understand his or her emotional response. Counseling can teach your child how to verbally express his or her feelings instead of having physical outbursts.

The approach that your therapist takes depends on the needs of your child. Your therapist can use a variety of techniques to modify behavior, such as consequences and rewards or family therapy. Therapy helps your child to learn communication and behavior modification skills. These skills help your child to interact better with family members, authority figures and peers. Psychotherapy also helps to uncover any underlying issues that may be contributing to your child's defiant behavior.

It depends on certain factors when determining the best treatment, such as severity of ODD, age of your child and the presence of other conditions. Signs of ODD usually show up in children between the ages of seven and 13. If your child is showing signs of this condition, then you should seek help from a child therapist. Without treatment, a child with ODD can experience rejection from other children because of aggressive behavior. It is important to get treatment early for best results.