Child Therapy in St. Petersburg, FL: Child Psychologists and Therapists for Kids
Parents rarely call a child therapist because of one bad day. They call because something has been building. The meltdowns are longer than they used to be. Drop-off has become a daily negotiation. Your child is anxious about things that never used to register, or is complaining of stomachaches every school morning, or is coming home from second grade saying nobody likes them. You are not sure whether this is a phase or a problem, and you would like someone qualified to help you tell the difference.
Family Psychology Associates has served Tampa Bay families since 1992. Our team of more than twenty licensed psychologists, mental health counselors, and clinical social workers includes clinicians who work specifically with children, and our practice also provides comprehensive psychological testing. That combination matters: when the picture is unclear, we can evaluate rather than guess. We see families at our St. Petersburg office on Central Avenue, as well as in Safety Harbor and Trinity, and by telehealth throughout Florida.
Clinically reviewed by Geoffrey Peal, Psy.D., Licensed Psychologist | Last updated July 30, 2026 | Family Psychology Associates has served Tampa Bay since 1992.
What We Help Children With
Our child clinicians work with a wide range of concerns. Most of them are common, most of them respond well to treatment, and almost none of them mean something is wrong with your parenting.
- Anxiety and worry, including separation anxiety, school refusal, perfectionism, fears, and physical complaints like stomachaches and headaches with no medical cause
- Behavior that has become hard to manage at home or school, including defiance, aggression, and long or frequent meltdowns
- ADHD, attention problems, and impulsivity
- Sadness, irritability, and loss of interest in things your child used to enjoy
- Emotional regulation, meaning the ability to recover from frustration and disappointment without the whole afternoon coming apart
- Social skills and friendship difficulties, including bullying
- Adjustment to divorce, separation, moves, a new sibling, or a death in the family
- Sleep problems and bedtime struggles
- Trauma and frightening experiences, which in children often show up as behavior change, regression, or changes in play rather than in words
- Autism-related support and family adjustment, alongside our autism services
What We See in Our Child Caseload
Several patterns come up repeatedly in the families we see. The first is anxiety that does not announce itself as anxiety. Younger children rarely say they are worried. They say their stomach hurts, they refuse to get in the car, they cling at drop-off, or they become irritable and rigid about small things. Parents often arrive believing the problem is behavioral and are surprised when a careful history points to fear underneath.
The second is bright children whose academic difficulty is invisible in the early grades. Reading and writing look adequate through second and third grade because the child is compensating, and then demand rises around fourth or fifth grade and the compensations run out. What arrives in our office is a discouraged kid, a frustrated family, and a question about motivation that turns out to be a question about learning. Girls in particular tend to be identified later, because quiet struggling gets flagged less often than disruptive struggling.
The third is families who suspected something, asked the school to evaluate, and were told their child does not qualify. School eligibility for special education has specific legal thresholds that are not the same as a clinical diagnosis, and many children with real, diagnosable conditions fall below the school’s line. A private comprehensive evaluation often identifies what is going on, opens the door to accommodations, and gives families a more productive conversation to have with the school.
A group that often goes under-supported is the parents and siblings around a child with significant needs. Caregiver stress in these families is well documented, and siblings carry their own set of experiences. A complete plan makes room for the people around the child, not only the child.
What Child Therapy Looks Like at FPA
The first appointment. With younger children, the first visit usually starts with the parents. We want the history, the timeline, what you have already tried, what the school is reporting, and what a hard day actually looks like in your house. Then we spend time with your child in a way that fits their age, which for a young child means play rather than an interview.
Play-based approaches. For younger children, play is the working language. Through toys, drawing, stories, and games, a child can show what they cannot yet explain, rehearse difficult situations, and practice new ways of coping. The clinician is not simply playing along. They are tracking themes, introducing challenges at the right level, and turning what emerges into guidance you can use at home.
Behavioral and cognitive behavioral approaches. As children get older, we add more structure. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy helps school-age children learn to recognize anxious or negative thoughts and test them against reality, and it pairs well with gradual, planned practice at facing avoided situations. Behavioral approaches focus on what happens around a behavior: what sets it off, what reinforces it, and what routines at home and school will make the desired behavior easier than the unwanted one.
Parent work runs in parallel. With children, the plan is usually a combination of direct work with your child and coaching for you, because change generalizes when it is practiced at home. See our page on parent training for the structured version of that work.
Logistics. Most children start weekly, sessions run about fifty minutes, and we offer after-school and evening appointments so therapy does not cost your child class time.
Your Role as a Parent
Parents sometimes come in braced for blame. That is not how this works. In child therapy, parents are collaborators, and often the most effective instrument of change we have, simply because you are with your child for thousands of hours a year and we are with them for one.
Practically, that means you can expect to be told what we are working on and why, to be given specific things to try between sessions, and to have a place to bring back what worked and what fell apart. It also means being honest with your clinician about the parts that are hard to admit: the yelling, the inconsistency between two households, the exhaustion. Those details are clinical information, not evidence against you.
When family patterns are doing more to maintain the problem than anything inside the child, we will say so and recommend family therapy or parent training alongside individual work.
When Testing Answers the Question Faster Than Therapy
Psychological testing is one of the strongest things our practice does, and for many children it is the shortest path to a plan that works. Family Psychology Associates provides comprehensive psychological and psychoeducational evaluations, including ADHD evaluations, cognitive and IQ testing, learning disability testing, and evaluations addressing autism spectrum concerns. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention publishes national data on how common ADHD in children is, and it is one of the most frequent reasons families are referred to us.
Consider an evaluation when:
- Your child works hard and the results still do not follow
- Attention, learning, anxiety, and behavior overlap enough that nobody can say which is driving which
- The school declined to evaluate, or found your child ineligible
- You need documentation to support a 504 plan, an IEP conversation, or accommodations
- A previous diagnosis explains part of the picture but not all of it
Our testing batteries are built to look for the conditions that commonly travel together, including learning disabilities, anxiety, mood problems, and autism spectrum conditions, and to rule out the things that can imitate them. Ambreen Shahabuddin, Ph.D., BCBA-D, conducts evaluations for our practice.
Our Child Psychologists and Therapists
At our St. Petersburg office, clinicians who work with children include Kate Blake, Psy.D. and Geoffrey Peal, Psy.D.
Across our other offices and by telehealth, clinicians who work with children include Lisa Averoff, LMHC and Millie Williams, LCSW in Safety Harbor; Izmini “Mina” Grady, LCSW, Eric Schave, LMHC, and Michael T. Smith, Ph.D. in Trinity; and Christine Bergman, LMHC and Britney Jenkins, LCSW by telehealth. Ambreen Shahabuddin, Ph.D., BCBA-D conducts psychological and behavioral evaluations.
Tell our intake team your child’s age, what you are seeing, and what has already been tried, and we will match on training and fit. Full profiles are on our team page.
Frequently Asked Questions About Child Therapy
The question we ask is about function, not intensity. Most children have hard weeks. What tells us something more is going on is when a change lasts, shows up in more than one setting, and gets in the way of ordinary life: school, friendships, sleep, eating, or family routines. If teachers and family are noticing the same thing you are, or if what used to work at home has stopped working, a consultation is reasonable. A single visit that ends with us telling you this is developmentally normal is a good outcome, not a wasted appointment.
Young children usually cannot narrate what is bothering them, but they can show it. Play therapy uses toys, art, stories, and games as the medium for the work the way conversation is the medium with adults. A skilled clinician uses what happens in play to understand your child’s worries and to practice new responses, and then translates that into specific guidance for home and school. It looks casual from the doorway. It is structured underneath.
You will be involved. With younger children, parents are often the most powerful lever we have, because you are with your child far more hours than we are. Expect regular parent check-ins, concrete strategies to try between sessions, and in many cases structured parent training that teaches specific behavioral tools. Being included is not a sign that anyone thinks you caused the problem.
Yes, with your written permission. That can mean talking with a teacher or school counselor, reviewing what the school is seeing, or providing documentation that supports a 504 plan or an IEP conversation. If a school evaluation has already been done and you are unsure what it means, bring it. School eligibility rules and clinical diagnosis are not the same thing, and understanding the gap is often the most useful hour we spend with a family.
It depends on what the question is. If the concern is emotional or behavioral and reasonably clear, therapy is usually the place to start. If the concern is about learning, attention, development, or a mismatch between how hard your child works and how they perform, a psychological evaluation often saves time by identifying what you are actually treating. Many families do both. Our intake team will help you sequence it.
Several of our clinicians are paneled with major insurance plans and others are out of network. Fees vary by clinician and by service, and testing is billed differently from therapy. Rather than quote a number that may not apply to your plan, our intake team reviews your specific coverage and gives you the expected cost before your first appointment. Start on our new client page.
Related Support for Your Family
Looking for support for your teenager? Our page on teen therapy in St. Petersburg covers adolescent concerns, confidentiality, and how we work with parents of teens.
You may also want to look at anxiety treatment, behavioral disorders, parent training, family therapy, trauma resolution, and psychological testing.
Where We See Children
St. Petersburg
5628 Central Ave, First Floor, St. Petersburg, FL 33707
727-900-7014
Convenient to downtown St. Pete, Kenwood, Pasadena, Gulfport, St. Pete Beach, and the Pinellas beaches.
Safety Harbor
801 2nd Street North, Suite 7, Safety Harbor, FL 34695
727-725-8820
Minutes from Clearwater, Palm Harbor, Dunedin, Largo, and Oldsmar.
Trinity
10751 Maple Creek Drive, Trinity Professional Place, Building 8, Suite 101, Trinity, FL 34655
727-203-3770
Minutes from New Port Richey, Holiday, Tarpon Springs, East Lake, and Keystone.
Telehealth appointments are available to families anywhere in Florida. Appointments are available six days a week and four nights a week.
Our Clinical Standards
Every clinician at Family Psychology Associates holds a current Florida license as a psychologist, mental health counselor, or clinical social worker. Content on this page reflects clinical approaches currently used by our practice and is reviewed by FPA clinical leadership. It is written for general education and is not a substitute for individualized clinical consultation.
If your child or teen is in crisis, having thoughts of harming themselves, or in immediate danger, call or text 988 (the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline), go to your nearest emergency room, or call 911.