Tips For Supporting Your Child’s Therapy Experience
August 22nd, 2007 |Written by Sally E. James, LPC, NCC
• Share important information with the therapist after your child’s session. Only share information with the therapist before the session if it will directly affect your child’s therapy for that day. Also, telling your child to “be sure to tell your therapist” about an issue puts pressure on the child and may seem like punishment.
• Children are allowed more freedom in therapy than they are at home. This is okay. There is no such thing as “bad” behavior in therapy. Children quickly learn that there are different rules in different places.
• Remember: sometimes the child’s behavior gets worse before it gets better. This is normal in therapy and is a sign of progress.
• Therapy is successful mainly because the child learns to trust the therapist never to reveal what is said and done in therapy. However, the child knows that the therapist will meet with the caregiver to discuss progress and general issues. Confidence is necessary to give the child freedom of self-expression which is essential for therapy to be effective.
• A therapist’s goal is not to find out what happened to your child. It is to facilitate the child’s healing, resolution of trauma, and help them learn to express their feelings.
• Children work very hard in therapy. Please try to avoid asking your child questions about the session unless they volunteer information. Things NOT to say…”Did you have fun?” “Did you like it?” Things you CAN say… “I bet you are tired. You have been working hard for an hour.”
©Copyright 2007 Sally E. James, LPC, NCC All Rights Reserved. Permission to publish granted to GoodTherapy.org. Questions or concerns about the article can be directed to the author or posted as a comment to this blog entry. The article was solely written and edited by the author named above. The views and opinions expressed are not necessarily shared by GoodTherapy.org.
August 26th, 2007 at 7:51 pm
Great tips! Although I had a limited caseload of child clientele when I practiced as a counselor (by choice), I was lucky enough to have child/adolescent clients with supportive families. Many of those clients had been through numerous counselors prior to me, so perhaps the parents learned how to cope appropriately with their child being in therapy. Nevertheless, I wish I had a list like this to hand out to parents prior to the start of therapy. Something like this valuable, especially during the initial interview/intake session.
Thanks,
Randy
June 30th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Don’t you think though that there are many parents who feel that you are the expert so they should not have to do any of the work for you? I do not feel this wya at all but I know there are probably some parents who will have a harder time with the therapy sessions than the kids will.