I'm Dr Emma Gray, and I'm the Lead Clinical Psychologist at the British CBT & Counselling
Service.
Now people of any age can experience emotional or psychological problems.
And as the parent, it's incredibly distressing to see a child suffer, particularly if you're
not sure how to help.
So in this video, I'm going to talk to you about child counselling.
Now good child counselling actively involves the parents—and there are two reasons for
this.
Parents are the single biggest influence in their child's life—more influential than
any therapist can ever be.
Secondly, in therapy, it's what's done in between sessions that makes the biggest difference;
so parents need to know how to support children in between their therapy sessions.
You can break good child counselling down, probably, into 5 key stages.
The first stage will involve an initial meeting with the parents.
And I would usually do this without the child present; this enables the parents to be able
to speak freely without worrying that what they say is going to come across as either
critical or blaming to the child.
The second part will involve a meeting with the child, either on their own—if they're
confident to meet with their therapist in that way—or with their parent.
And in that session, it's about finding out what the child thinks is going on.
The third stage of child counselling is when everybody gets back together with the therapist,
and the therapist will explain what's going on—their understanding of the problem.
And this is important because all behaviour makes sense if you look at the context.
Human beings wouldn't have survived this long if they behaved in a senseless, random way.
And if we can understand the function that behaviour serves, it often becomes a lot clearer
how we should move forward if we want to change those behaviours.
So in this stage, as well as gaining an understanding of what's going on, your therapist should
present to you a clear and easily understandable plan of action.
In the fourth stage of counselling, you will begin to work towards helping your child feel
better.
And this will involve a combination of sessions with parents, sessions with the child, and
joint sessions.
Once things start to settle down—once your child seems happier (more content), is enjoying
life a little bit more—you will move into the fifth stage of child counselling.
And this is really about consolidating the changes you've been able to make and building
your confidence, and your child's confidence, so that you can manage independent of therapy.
So, that's a whistle-stop tour of child counselling.
Hopefully, I've been able to answer all of your questions, but, as always, if not, please
post them in the comments, and I will do my best to answer them.
I'll see you soon.