The Child Center of NY is pleased to serve as the Queens borough-wide provider of the Early Childhood Mental Health Network, a Mayor’s Office of Community Mental Health initiative designed to provide mental health services and support for families who have young children, ages 0–5, with mental health needs. Our bilingual and bicultural therapists utilize evidence-based, trauma-focused models of treatment, including play therapy and Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP), that have been proven to make a difference for this age group and give them the promising start we want for all our children.

Just as we need to ensure that children begin school academically ready to learn, we also need to ensure they begin life socially and emotionally ready to thrive. The Child Center can help with that piece of the puzzle. 

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Many people wonder what mental health counseling for such young children entails. It mostly involves strengthening the parent-child bond in ways that make the child feel safe and secure and support their development. We work with pregnant people and children 0-5 years old, including newborns, with their parents or other primary caregivers. The goal is building secure and healthy relationships between parent and baby and prevent insecure attachment relationships that tend to result in mental health issues down the road. We help every family in our care to establish a mentally and emotionally healthy start.

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Here are some things that we provide children, parents, caregivers, and families who enter counseling with us:

• parent groups and individual therapy

• individual child screenings

• caregiver depression, anxiety, and parental stress screenings

• guidance in increasing positive interactions and communication between parent and child

• assistance in developing social-emotional skills, building resiliency, improving self-esteem, and encouraging self-regulation

• the tools to help families handle the inevitable setbacks and challenges of life safely and constructively, now and in the future

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We also offer perinatal, infant, and P+ECMH consultation, an intervention program that pairs a mental health professional with schools, hospitals or other agencies that service perinatal to preschool populations. The consultant works with agencies to find ways to promote the social and emotional development of young children and works with families to improve relational health.​