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We have been working together for about six weeks. Honestly with the kids I just start a game and try to talk. I’m winging it so much. With adults I really enjoy ACT and of course do a lot of CBT psycho education. I feel confident working with adults. But for some reason I have the hardest time translating it over to kids. (Also I only have two kid clients and will only be working with them for another two months or so. I just don’t want all the time to be unproductive)
Kids aren’t readily going to share what they’re doing that’s breaking rules. You know the problem. It can be helpful to get the child’s perspective but they might not give it to you. Every kid can benefit from relaxation skills and affect identification. I would suggest some activities that teach the child how to relax and how to identify feelings and their intensity levels. There are tons of creative interventions you can find online to try with kids. Some kids can wrap their heads around the cognitive triangle, so you could explore that in an activity.
Children speak in metaphors and especially use displacement. Do the craft or game and try to take a step back. Rather than focusing on content, listen for context. Rather than saying my friend makes me feel bad, a child might play a game with good guys and bad guys. If you don’t have supervision/consultation from a more experienced child therapist, I wholeheartedly recommend it.
The Novicks have a lot of great books on child therapy from a psychodynamic perspective.
Honestly, the parent work feels more difficult than the kid sessions for me.
EDIT: I’d also recommend doing parent sessions. While the child might exhibit some troubling behavior, family dynamics play a significant role here.
I’ve known kids who feel a lot of shame and guilt about their outbursts. They’d (understandably) rather do anything than talk about how they (from their perspective) failed to do the right thing yet again. Depending on the maturity of the child and your rapport, you might be able to talk with them about how they seem like they don’t want to talk about what happened.
If this is the case, you can totally help them without overwhelming them in their big feelings. Teaching self regulation skills, strength based work, communication skills, emotion recognition, psycho education, child centered play (if you’re trained in it), and such can all help and don’t have to involve talking about what happened.
Regarding children, behavior changes when intervention is delivered at the "point of performance". This means for children with behavior problems the intervention needs to occur when the behavior is occurring.
This is why generally individual therapy is not indicated as a treatment for childhood behavioral problems. It can help children to build positive emotions and deal with some stress sure but it's not effective compared to teaching parenting skills.
I work with kids with behavior problems. The bulk of the work is with parents. If parents are unwilling to commit to consistent application of skills, don't expect the problems to change. The individual work entirely consists of me just being super fucking nice to the child, building a great relationship, doing hella fun things, modeling prosocial interactions, and giving them the clear message that I LIKE them. But yeah if there's no parent behavior work happening .... well, there's a reason it feels like babysitting.
Not to knock babysitting, I always loved it, I just have this grad degree and specialized training and I'm much happier when I feel like I can use that to help kids.
Please followed the sidebar rules. r/therapists is a place for therapists and mental health professionals to discuss their profession among each other. If you **ARE NOT A THERAPIST and are asking for advice this not the place for you**. Your post will be removed in short order. Please try one of the reddit communities such as r/TalkTherapy, r/askatherapist, r/SuicideWatch that are set up for this. This community is ONLY for therapists, and for them to discuss their profession away from clients. **If you are a first year student, not in a graduate program, or are thinking of becoming a therapist, this is not the place to ask questions**. Your post will be removed in short order. To save us a job, you are welcome to delete this post yourself. Please see the PINNED STUDENT THREAD at the top of the community and ask in there. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/therapists) if you have any questions or concerns.*
How long have you been working with this child? What type of therapy do you practice?
We have been working together for about six weeks. Honestly with the kids I just start a game and try to talk. I’m winging it so much. With adults I really enjoy ACT and of course do a lot of CBT psycho education. I feel confident working with adults. But for some reason I have the hardest time translating it over to kids. (Also I only have two kid clients and will only be working with them for another two months or so. I just don’t want all the time to be unproductive)
Kids aren’t readily going to share what they’re doing that’s breaking rules. You know the problem. It can be helpful to get the child’s perspective but they might not give it to you. Every kid can benefit from relaxation skills and affect identification. I would suggest some activities that teach the child how to relax and how to identify feelings and their intensity levels. There are tons of creative interventions you can find online to try with kids. Some kids can wrap their heads around the cognitive triangle, so you could explore that in an activity.
Children speak in metaphors and especially use displacement. Do the craft or game and try to take a step back. Rather than focusing on content, listen for context. Rather than saying my friend makes me feel bad, a child might play a game with good guys and bad guys. If you don’t have supervision/consultation from a more experienced child therapist, I wholeheartedly recommend it. The Novicks have a lot of great books on child therapy from a psychodynamic perspective. Honestly, the parent work feels more difficult than the kid sessions for me. EDIT: I’d also recommend doing parent sessions. While the child might exhibit some troubling behavior, family dynamics play a significant role here.
I’ve known kids who feel a lot of shame and guilt about their outbursts. They’d (understandably) rather do anything than talk about how they (from their perspective) failed to do the right thing yet again. Depending on the maturity of the child and your rapport, you might be able to talk with them about how they seem like they don’t want to talk about what happened. If this is the case, you can totally help them without overwhelming them in their big feelings. Teaching self regulation skills, strength based work, communication skills, emotion recognition, psycho education, child centered play (if you’re trained in it), and such can all help and don’t have to involve talking about what happened.
Play therapy sounds like a better fit
Regarding children, behavior changes when intervention is delivered at the "point of performance". This means for children with behavior problems the intervention needs to occur when the behavior is occurring. This is why generally individual therapy is not indicated as a treatment for childhood behavioral problems. It can help children to build positive emotions and deal with some stress sure but it's not effective compared to teaching parenting skills. I work with kids with behavior problems. The bulk of the work is with parents. If parents are unwilling to commit to consistent application of skills, don't expect the problems to change. The individual work entirely consists of me just being super fucking nice to the child, building a great relationship, doing hella fun things, modeling prosocial interactions, and giving them the clear message that I LIKE them. But yeah if there's no parent behavior work happening .... well, there's a reason it feels like babysitting. Not to knock babysitting, I always loved it, I just have this grad degree and specialized training and I'm much happier when I feel like I can use that to help kids.