I would but I think Riley is more likely to just talk to me than a counselor. She will hardly say hi to people she doesnt know.
A good councilor or therapist knows how to deal with that kind of issue. There are plenty of lousy ones too so one must be careful.
As a child I never went to counseling. Although for the first year or so, I did go to a support group thing at Dartmouth. They split the parents and children up. While the parents talked about their situations and learned more from other specialists, the kids got to learn in a way that was fun. We played games and other activities that really helped us understand our disease in a fun way. I think that helped a lot with the understanding and getting comfortable with ourselves after being recently diagnosed.
But recently (I'm 14) I've started to see a psychiatrist at the hospital. She specializes in T1 and has helped quite a bit. My endo recommended her when he saw how things were getting really difficult again. I think almost every T1 goes through a time where everything just seems all wrong and it gets really hard to take care of yourself. That's when I started seeing her. But I personally think that the support groups are really helpfull for younger kids. They make it fun and make it so they can understand everything better and have a better outlook on it all. That's just my opinion. Haha. :)
I agree with what everyone else has said, though it might get better on its own. My son is 4, dx'd May 09. He has always been very compliant about D care, (though particularly of site changes). That said, I think he has tried to garner control in other areas of life that are not D-related. So he would have tantrums about little things and both my mom (a nurse) and I feel this was related to having lost some control and being compliant with D that he needed to get his way on some other things. We have not taken him to a counselor, but really work on talking about feelings. We say to both our kids that we can't help them unless they talk about this. I hope starting this at early ages (4 and 2) that this will translate into a life of really trusting their parents. His overall behavior is really good now.
Try to give him some control on things he can, that don't really matter. Really, as long as he doesn't want to go to the store naked, let him wear what he wants. Take pictures so you can embarass him when he is older, but you will look back on it with fond memories. :-) I also know much older kids (8-10) that get stuck on wanting to wear the same thing for a week or more. So I think that can be more of a normal development thing than anything too weird or needing to be worried about.
I, on the other hand, was a complete mess after his dx. I muddled through several months before I started working with a life coach. Not exactly the same as a psychologist/psychiatrist/counselor but what I needed. I could talk about what I was feeling, but what I really needed was help developing my own goals for our family, my career, and my life and then being accountable to someone to accomplish them. There is much to be said for it being an outsider. No one (my husband, family, mom, friends) had the neutral perspective that she has provided. I have since talked about most of what I share with my coach with those people, but sometimes you can't get it out to them first without conquering fears of judgement. She has been fantastic and I am in such a great place because of it.