Pediatric Behavioral Health
CHRISTUS Children’s Psychology Clinic offers a wide range of behavioral health services to assist children, adolescents, and families receiving treatment by physicians in San Antonio.
Our Specialty Programs Include:
- Anxiety Disorders
- Chronic Medical Illness Adjustment
- Behavioral Medicine
- Comprehensive Autism
- Neuropsychology and Assessment Clinic
Hours & Locations
Children's - Psychology Clinic
Anxiety Disorders Program
Anxiety disorders are commonly diagnosed in children and adolescents. They often lead to school avoidance, child’s withdrawal from family activities, and child fearing to engage in social activities. Children and teens with anxiety disorders gradually begin to experience low self-esteem, academic failure, and poor social skills.
CHRISTUS Children’s - Psychology Clinic provides evaluation, diagnosis, and evidence-based treatment for a wide variety of anxiety disorders in children and adolescents.
Children and adolescents ages 6-18 qualify for referral to this program.
Evaluation and treatment services will typically include:
- Psychological evaluation
- School consultation and assistance with Section 504 Plan
- Communication with your child's primary care provider
- Child and family cognitive-behavioral therapy
Behavioral Therapy Program
We provide evaluation, diagnosis, and evidence-based behavioral treatment for several complex childhood mental health disorders. The treatment consists of 8-10 weekly sessions and involves family participation and homework.
Behavioral Therapy for Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviors
Body-focused repetitive behaviors (BFRB) are lifelong disorders that include hair pulling, skin picking, and nail biting. These are not habits or tics and they shouldn’t be dismissed as caused by anxiety. These behaviors have complex origins and require a specialist to provide treatment to stop children from physically harming their bodies. Our clinicians are happy to offer this treatment for children as young as toddlers.
Comprehensive Behavioral Intervention for Tourette’s Disorder/Tics (CBIT)
CBIT is a highly structured treatment which includes training children to do competing behaviors when they feel an urge to tic and using relaxation and distraction in their daily activities to help reduce occurrence of tics. While Tics/Tourette’s are neurological disorders, CBIT can be helpful in reducing situations in which tics occur and giving children more control over their tics. CBIT will not cure tics but it can be expected to result in a significant reduction in tics. The child must be highly motivated to engage in the treatment as it will involve continuous practice and homework.
Exposure/Response Prevention for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) causes upsetting thoughts (obsessions) and the urge do repetitive behaviors (compulsions) the child believes will reduce their anxiety. Unfortunately, children will often get “stuck” in the unending cycle of obsessions, compulsions, and anxiety. Exposure/Response Prevention (ERT) is a highly effective structured treatment for childhood OCD and is a type of CBT. After a comprehensive evaluation, the clinician will work with child and family on identifying triggers to obsessive thoughts and gradually preventing compulsive behaviors. Children generally enjoy the treatment and improve quickly.
Chronic Illness Adjustment Program
We provide treatment for children struggling with chronic health conditions, such as asthma, cystic-fibrosis, functional abdominal pain, Irritable Bowel Disease, Diabetes Mellitus, Congenital Heart Disease, Sickle Cell disease, hemophilia, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, and many others. Children are usually treated in conjunction with all medical professionals involved in their care. Physicians and families can expect improvement in adherence to medical treatment and reduction in stress and disability associated with chronic illness.
Families can expect the following services:
- Psychological Evaluation
- School consultation and assistance with Section 504 Plan
- Consultation with all treating physicians
- Hospital services when child is hospitalized due to the aggravation of medical condition
- Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) aimed at helping child/teen and family cope with the stress of chronic illness.
Comprehensive Autism Program
We offer screenings and multidisciplinary evaluation for autism spectrum disorders. We do not offer treatment for autism. Please discuss treatment options with your child's neurologist.
Neuropsychology and Assessment Clinic
We offer neuropsychological evaluations for children with chronic medical difficulties, including history of prematurity, epilepsy, cancer, genetic disorders, traumatic head injuries, and neurodevelopmental disorders.