Your Child and Therapy
Child counseling can be very successful if you support your child throughout the therapeutic process. Family counseling also works wonders if everyone bands together and supports each other through the changes that come about. Follow these tips to support your child and family in therapy.
1. Be there to listen and offer caring support, without judgement, to your child during the time in therapy.
2. Meet with the child's therapist to make sure personalities are a good match for you and your child.
3. Be open and talk frequently with your child. Make sure discussions are age appropriate as early school-age children may need brief, simple discussions or explanations while upper elementary-age children may ask more detailed questions and may need help figuring out the difference between television therapy and what to expect from the real thing.
4. Try not to pressure your child about what happened in his/her counseling session. Your child will probably tell you in their own time in his/her own way.
5. Keep the lines of communication open between you, your child's therapist and their son or daughter. Showing your child that you trust the child's therapist helps build trust.
6. Try not to rush change. Remember that trust is built over time. It's not any different for child and family counseling. Allow time for your child to learn to trust his/her counselor. If you become intimidated by the child/therapist relationship, bring it up to the therapist (there's nothing to be embarrassed about).
7. Patience is extremely important throughout the child and family counseling process. Your child may not understand how to express his/her emotions and fears like an adult would, therefore your son/daughter may have some temporary behavior changes throughout the therapeutic process.
8. Be a good role model. Show the child you are willing to take care of yourself and if you need counseling, seek it.
9. Make time to discuss your child's worries, fears and even accomplishments. Be sure to turn off any distractions (phones, TV, video games, etc.) so your son/daughter knows how important the time spent with them is to you.
10. Most importantly, enjoy favorite activities with your child alone and with the entire family.
If you have any questions or concerns throughout the therapeutic process, don't hesitate to ask. Your child and family therapist is there to help!
If you should have questions or topics you would like to have addressed, please feel free to send in your ideas to mj.thomas.ifs@gmail.com. Please understand we may not be able to get to every request but we will try our best.
Thanks for reading.
