Helping Children and Young Adults Children and young people often don’t have the coping strategies or the language to get through a crisis situation successfully. Negative behaviors and acting out are often the only way for that person to try to express what they are feeling. The trained and compassionate counselors at Families First have the experience to work with the child to help them explore their feelings, put words to the feelings and then work through the problem in a more positive way. Helping Families through Crisis When a child is in crisis, the whole family unit is affected. The crisis maybe a reaction to the child’s behavior or the child’s reaction to what is happening in the family. No matter what the cause, the counselors at Families First Counseling Services of Iowa are trained to work with everyone involved to uncover the causes of the problems and then work with all involved to find solutions and healing.