We've had two of our kids go through therapy at relatively young ages, and we've actually tried a total of three times for our ds. I think whether or not therapy will be successful with young children depends on two things: I think the biggest issue is - is the therapy you're seeking targeted to the actual issue at the root of whatever challenges your child is having (I'll explain this relative to my own children's experience), and second, the personality of the child. I really think the personality of your child is secondary to the first thing though - understanding what exactly it is that you're trying to get help with and having a reasonable goal related to it.
My ds first had counseling when he was 6 years old, for suspected anxiety (he'd been suffering from stomach pain for months and been through every physical test under the sun before his ped referred him for counseling. He had a counselor that just didn't seem to get him at all - she talked to him as if he was a little kid, when he was used to talking to us and us responding to a much older-intellect kid (he's our EG kiddo). He went for several sessions, didn't seem to get anywhere, then his dad stopped *traveling* for work and voila, no more stomachaches... so we thought we were through, never went back and lived happily... for another few months or so lol. The next year he was back into full-on anxiety and that's when he had his first neuropsych eval and we learned he was 2e.
Soooo... his neuropsych recommended counseling for him to help learn how to deal with frustrating situations, since he was bound to run into them on his journey through the world of 2e. She recommended a male counselor that she had a lot of great feedback on from other clients of young children. DS was 8 at the time. The counselor wanted to meet with ds alone so ds could talk openly about feelings, and that freaked ds out - he didn't want to be alone with him and didn't really want to be there at all, so it didn't work and we gave up on it after a few sessions. At the same time, we were making accommodations and changes at school and ds' anxiety disappeared - especially when school let out for the summer, so we didn't pursue any further counseling. Later on we realized that part of the challenge with talking to the counselors had been that ds has an expressive language disorder that no one was aware of at the time. So then - a few years later, when he was 10 and on the verge of middle school plus having a tough time with accepting that he needed to use accommodations at school we sought out a counselor again, and had a much better success - I think partly because we had a clear goal in counseling and we understood what was going on with him. A few years worth of maturity also undoubtedly helped.
So that was our ds - counseling didn't work at all for him until we really understood what was causing his anxieties. Once we had that, it worked - a bit. He's still not a kid who responds well to counseling - he prefers to talk it out and figure things out with his parents, and for the most part, that works ok.
Our second experience has been with our dd7. She's a kid who is all about accomplishing accomplishing accomplishing - very driven. She's also all about control and began going through some very severe temper tantrums around 5-6 years old. They got to the point that we had to have some kind of help, and our ped recommended counseling before neuropsych, which we thought was the right way to go (at the time). She has just started counseling recently and it's going relatively well - because she is so keyed into being in control, it's been much more effective to have a third party adult who has is in a position of "authority" make suggestions re how to cope with her feelings than having the same type of advice come from a parent. She's also put in a position where she can perform for this person to a certain extent, ie, the counselor gives her techniques to practice during the week, then we go back and I and she both have a chance to tell the counselor how it went - kinda like a report card for a kid who is all about getting straight As. I don't know if it will work for the long run, but it's been *very* helpful in helping her feel calm, and to identify and own her feelings - and she's clearly coping much better with far fewer tantrums than she was before counseling. So - for her, it seems to be working. The irony is - we're kinda in a relatively small town.... and the counselor she's seeing... is the counselor who our ds saw at 6 and just seemed to be such a poor match.
So that's our very limited experience, fwiw.
polarbear
