Therapy for Kids
in the Nashville Area

If anxiety is persistent and interfering with your child's daily life in any meaningful way, it's worth seeking help — you don't need to wait for a crisis. Early support often means faster progress and less suffering. Look for patterns where worry is consistently affecting school, sleep, friendships, family life, or physical health.

Some specific signs to watch for:

• Avoiding school, or frequent complaints about stomachaches or headaches without a medical cause
• Trouble falling or staying asleep
• Meltdowns or avoidance that disrupts family activities
• Pulling back from friendships or social situations

If you're not sure whether what you're seeing rises to that level, reach out for a consultation. We're happy to talk through what you're noticing and help you figure out if therapy is the right next step.

At Tennessee Mental Wellness, we see children starting at age 5 for anxiety treatment and general counseling. We also provide specialized support for teenagers navigating anxiety during the adolescent years.

Our therapists use developmentally appropriate approaches — more play-based and experiential for younger kids, and more conversation- and skills-based for older children and teens. We'll match your child with a therapist whose training and style fit their age and what they're going through.

School refusal can be caused by anxiety, but not always. It's important to understand what's actually driving it before jumping to a plan. Other factors — like bullying, peer conflict, learning difficulties, a difficult relationship with a teacher, or something traumatic that happened at school — can all look similar on the surface.

Once we have a clear picture of what's underneath the avoidance, we develop a step-by-step plan that takes your child's anxiety seriously while also helping them gradually move forward. We've helped many families navigate school refusal successfully, and collaboration with the school is often a key part of that process.

For most children, significant progress happens within 12–16 weekly sessions. General anxiety, social anxiety, and specific fears often respond well within that timeframe. Trauma-related anxiety — which we treat using approaches like EMDR and Brainspotting — is also typically time-limited, with many families noticing meaningful improvement within 12–20 sessions.

That said, every child is different. Some need more time to practice and integrate new skills across different situations. We'll give you a clearer picture after an initial assessment, once we understand your child's specific needs and history.

This is completely normal — especially for anxious kids, who are often nervous about trying something new or talking about things that feel uncomfortable. Most kids warm up once they realize therapy isn't scary and that they're actually learning tools that help them feel better.

A few things that can help before the first session:

• Frame it as learning new skills, not as something being "wrong" with them
• Let them know they'll have a say in what they work on
• Remind them the therapist's job is to help them do more of what they enjoy
• Consider starting with online therapy if going somewhere new feels like too much

Our therapists are skilled at building rapport even with reluctant kids — getting them engaged is part of the work.

Yes — we offer both in-person therapy at our Gallatin, TN office and online therapy throughout Tennessee. Research shows that online therapy can be just as effective as in-person for anxiety, and for some kids, being in their home environment actually makes it easier to practice what they're learning.

Online therapy can be a great fit for kids who are anxious about going somewhere new, families with busy schedules or transportation challenges, or situations where practicing skills at home is especially relevant. We'll help you figure out which format makes the most sense for your child.

There's a lot parents can do to support their child between sessions. The most important thing is validating their feelings without reinforcing avoidance — it's okay to acknowledge that something feels scary while also communicating confidence that they can handle it.

A few other strategies that help:

• Avoid excessive reassurance — repeatedly answering "what if" questions can actually strengthen anxiety over time
• Model healthy worry management so your child sees what it looks like to handle stress productively
• Create structure and predictability when possible — anxious kids often do better when they know what to expect
• Encourage small, brave steps rather than pushing for big leaps all at once

Your child's therapist will also give you personalized strategies based on what they're seeing in sessions.

Anxiety and trauma frequently go hand in hand. If your child has been through something frightening or overwhelming — whether a single event or ongoing stress — it's important that their therapist is equipped to address both.

At Tennessee Mental Wellness, we specialize in trauma-informed care for children and teens. Our therapists are trained in EMDR and Brainspotting, two evidence-based approaches that are particularly effective for kids whose anxiety is rooted in traumatic experiences. During an initial consultation, we'll assess whether trauma is part of the picture and make sure your child is matched with the right therapist.

General anxiety typically involves persistent worry across a range of situations — school, health, friendships, the future. A trauma response, on the other hand, is usually tied to specific experiences and may show up as flashbacks, nightmares, strong physical reactions to reminders of the event, or significant avoidance of people, places, or situations connected to what happened.

The distinction matters because the treatment approaches are different. At Tennessee Mental Wellness, we use EMDR and Brainspotting specifically for trauma-related anxiety — these approaches work directly with how the nervous system has stored difficult experiences, rather than just addressing anxious thinking patterns.

When appropriate — and with your permission — we're glad to collaborate with your child's school to support their progress. This might include consulting with teachers or school counselors, sharing strategies that help in the classroom, or helping coordinate a gradual return-to-school plan for kids dealing with school refusal.

School collaboration is especially helpful when anxiety is showing up in academic performance or attendance. Our goal is to make sure the adults in your child's life are working from the same page.

Therapy for children and teens involves a balance between confidentiality and parent involvement, and we're transparent about how that works from the start.

For younger children (generally under 12), parents are typically more involved in sessions and have access to more information. For teens (generally 12 and up), we offer more privacy to help build trust — while still keeping parents informed about anything important. Regardless of age, if there are ever safety concerns, we will always involve parents and take whatever steps are needed to keep your child safe. We'll walk through all of this together in the first session so everyone knows what to expect.

Therapy is the first-line treatment for most childhood anxiety, and many kids make excellent progress without medication. That said, for some children a combination of therapy and medication is the most effective approach.

If we think medication might be worth exploring for your child, we'll have that conversation with you openly and can provide a referral to a child psychiatrist or your pediatrician. Our therapists are happy to coordinate with prescribers to make sure your child is getting well-rounded care.

Yes — we work with children and teens with ADHD, helping them build skills around focus, emotional regulation, organization, and self-confidence. ADHD rarely shows up alone, and many kids we see are navigating anxiety, behavioral challenges, or family stress alongside it.

Therapy for ADHD looks different than it does for anxiety or trauma. It tends to be more skills-focused and often involves parents directly, since so much of what helps an ADHD child happens outside the therapy room. We'll work with you as a family to figure out what strategies actually fit your child's brain and your household.

Yes — we welcome neurodivergent children and teens, including those who are autistic or have co-occurring diagnoses like ADHD and anxiety. Our therapists take a strengths-based approach, meaning we start from who your child is rather than trying to change the way their brain works.

Many autistic kids come to us dealing with anxiety, social stress, sensory overwhelm, or difficulty navigating family and school relationships. We tailor our approach to fit how your child communicates and processes the world, rather than expecting them to fit a standard therapy model.

Yes, and this combination is actually very common. ADHD and anxiety frequently occur together, and they can interact in ways that make each one harder to manage on its own — for example, difficulty with focus can increase worry, and anxiety can make it even harder to get started on tasks.

At Tennessee Mental Wellness, we take a whole-child view and won't treat these as separate, unrelated issues. Your child's therapist will develop an approach that addresses both, and we'll keep parents involved throughout so the support at home and in therapy are working in the same direction.