The sad child

The child has less joy or interest in things that he or she appreciated earlier, shows sadness or irritability, discouragement, restricted or repetitive activities. He or she tires more quickly and sometimes also has appetite or sleep disturbances. Depressive or depression-like symptoms, however, can be very different from child to child; besides, the child rarely speaks about his or her suffering, often can't express why it is sad.

The causes of this sadness are often very diverse, such as a separation, the loss of a related person or a pet, a move, a relationship problem, or other reasons, but sometimes these reasons are not known.

I offer the parents an analysis of the current situation with their child, give guidance and advice. Depending on the initial situation I can recommend special support or coaching.

As part of my doctoral thesis, I dealt with children who had sad experiences as well as depressive symptoms. My goal was, among other things, to find the power sources, especially through their play and their creativity.