Family Therapy A Sons Progress

Family Therapy A Sons Progress

Child Therapy: 19 Counseling Techniques & Kids’ Activities

17 May 2018 by Courtney E. Ackerman, MA.

Courtney Ackerman , MA, is a graduate of the positive organizational psychology and evaluation program at Claremont Graduate University. She is currently working as a researcher for the State of California and her professional interests include survey research, wellbeing in the workplace, and compassion.

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Child therapy is not always easy for parents to discuss.
With the stigma of mental health, nobody wants their child to “need therapy,” which is unfortunate because therapy can change lives.
Whether kids have traumatic issues or are struggling with the brave and simple act of being human, qualified professionals can help kids deal with really hard subjects.
It makes sense that parents and guardians need professional insight, especially for tender subjects or developmentally appropriate issues of growing up. Many people consider child therapy for huge topics like abuse, neglect, and trauma, but it can have an equally weighted focus on positive growth and strengths.
Therapy sessions can focus on working towards an optimistic future, developing positive coping methods, as well as boosting self-esteem, self-confidence, and other positive states and traits in children.
Whether the child is participating in play therapy, behavioral therapy, or expressive therapy, it can provide them with opportunities to survive after trauma and eventually, thrive.
Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our three Positive CBT Exercises for free . These science-based exercises will provide you with detailed insight into Positive CBT and give you the tools to apply it in your therapy or coaching.
Child therapy (also called child counseling) is similar to therapy and counseling for adults: it offers a safe space and an empathetic ear while providing tools to bring about change in thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
Just like adult clients, child clients receive emotional and goal support in their sessions. They can focus on resolving conflict, understanding their own thoughts and feelings, and on thinking of new solutions to their daily problems.
The only big difference between adult therapy and child therapy is the emphasis on making sure children understand what is happening, and how they are not alone.
Child therapy can be practiced with one child, a child, and a parent or parents, or even with more than one family. It is often administered by a counselor or therapist who specializes in working with children, and who can offer the parents and/or guardians insights that may not be immediately apparent.
The therapist and client(s) can cover a wide variety of issues that include:
Good therapy will be present and forward-oriented (meaning there will be little looking back or digging up the past) and will likely utilize non-verbal modalities like play, games, art, etc.
In addition, the therapy sessions may focus on five important goals on top of any situation-specific goals:
To summarize, child therapy is quite similar to therapy for adults in terms of the purpose, goals, and problems it can address, but it differs with the focus of explaining these topics to young children.
Techniques and exercises offer ways that are appropriate, for the child’s age, to understand themselves in the world.
See our article on CBT for Children for more information.
If a parent or guardian is not sure whether the child needs counseling or not, the list of symptoms below can be a good indicator. If the child is experiencing one or more of these symptoms, coupled with the parent’s concern, it’s a good idea to take him or her in for an evaluation.
The following are symptoms that may indicate a problem that therapy can correct or help with:
In addition to these issues, the child may be dealing with:
If parents decide to bring their child to therapy, they need to stay engaged throughout the therapy process.
The American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry suggests asking the therapist or counselor the following questions:
Similarly, there are some suggestions on how to talk to a child about going to counseling. It can feel uncomfortable to both the parent(s) and the child to talk about mental health treatment, but following these tips can help make it approachable:
There are many effective forms of child therapy with evidence to back them up, including Applied Behavior Analysis, Behavior Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy , Cognitive Therapy, Family Therapy , Interpersonal Psychotherapy , and Organization Training (Society of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 2017).
Younger children may also benefit from Play Therapy , and older adolescents may benefit from Dialectical Behavior Therapy , Group Therapy , or Psychodynamic Psychotherapy (American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 2017).
These therapies may be administered on their own, in combination with other therapies, or as a hodge-podge of techniques and exercises from several different types of therapies. In addition, it may or may not be accompanied by medication, depending on the situation.
One of these therapies may work for a child far better than the others, and the type chosen will depend on the issue(s) the child and family are dealing with. Like with any form of therapy, it is most effective when everyone involved is on board, supportive, and contributing to its success.
An overly emotional child (or one that struggles with inappropriate emotional expression or emotional dysregulation) may be suffering from one or more of a variety of issues, including ADHD, mental illness, anxiety, or even an autism spectrum disorder.
Whatever the issue they are facing, child therapy can help them deal with it.
Cognitive therapy is a good choice for emotional children, as it involves reducing anxiety and learning new ideas and new ways to channel the child’s feelings and energy. It will also help him or her to identify their inner thoughts, and try to replace the negative ones with more positive, helpful ones.
Applied behavior analysis can help the child learn how to respond to situations in better, more effective ways, and will teach them about rewards and punishments for their behavior. Play therapy is a good choice for younger children with emotional issues since they can act them out through toys or dolls (KidsMentalHealth, 2009).
The type of therapy and techniques that will work best for the child may also depend on which stage of development they are in; Erik Erikson’s groundbreaking theory on the eight stages of psychosocial development is a commonly recognized and accepted theory and can help differentiate between normal, age-appropriate issues and more troublesome symptoms.
The first five stages of development are:
The final three stages are not relevant for the purposes of discussing child therapy, but they are listed here if you’re curious:
Based on these life stages, we know that it is common for children in early childhood to throw tantrums when they don’t get their way; tantrums alone aren’t reason enough to seek a therapist. However, if someone of school age is still throwing tantrums, it may be time to explore therapy and counseling options.
The exact techniques that child therapy may use will depend on the type of therapy that is administered. A few of the most common and evidence-backed techniques, as well as the type of therapy they can commonly be found in, are described below.
There are many play therapy techniques that have proven to be effective, fun, and engaging for children. The Feeling Word Game is one such technique.
It begins with the therapist asking the child to list the feelings that children of their age experience. The therapist will write each word down on a card or piece of paper, or draw a face representative of the emotion if the child is too young to read. Once the child runs out of feeling words to suggest, the therapist will line up the feeling cards in front of the child.
Next, the therapist will bring out a container of small tokens, like poker chips, and explain that these are “feelings.” He or she will tell a personal story (real or fictional) that demonstrates both positive and negative emotions that a person may feel. The therapist will then put the tokens on the feeling cards that correspond to the emotions mentioned in the story.
In the next step, the therapist will tell the child a similar story about a child their own age. The story will be non-threatening but will include the potential for several positive and negative emotions. The therapist will hand the container to the child and instruct him or her to put the tokens down on the feeling cards that represent how they would feel if they were the child in the story.
Finally, the therapist will encourage the child to tell a story of their own, preferably about their own life. For each story the child tells, he or she will continue identifying the feelings that each occasion brought up.
The therapist will keep the stories going until the child has brought up the major issues that he or she is dealing with. This is a great way to encourage a child to open up in therapy and get the ball rolling, as well as identifying the presenting problem(s).
You can read more about this technique in Hall, Kaduson, and Schaefer’s 2002 paper “ Fifteen Effective Play Therapy Techniques .”
The Mad Game, developed by Patricia Davidson and described by Hall, Kaduson, and Schaefer (2002), can be used to show children that it’s okay to feel anger and to encourage them to express it in a healthy way. It can also be adjusted to work for other emotions as well, like sadness or anxiety.
First, the therapist will take a set of blocks ( cardboard, wooden, or plastic) and divide them evenly between themselves and the child. Next, the therapist will explain the rules: each person will place a block on top of the other person’s block during their turn. They will alternate turns, and at each turn, they will share something that is unfair or something that makes them angry.
The therapist can begin with silly or lighthearted things, like “It makes me mad when I want to play outside but it’s raining” or “It’s not fair that I can’t eat candy for every meal!” Eventually, they will progress on to things that are more specific to the child’s issues.
Once all the blocks are stacked, the therapist will instruct the child to think of one thing that makes them the angriest, make a face that reflects how they feel (a “mad face”), and knockdown all the blocks.
This technique allows the child to discuss their anger, an exercise that may be unfamiliar if the child is not used to feeling like it is acceptable to express such emotions. It will also give the child an opportunity to act out that anger in a safe and healthy way.
This technique can be applied to help the child learn about self-control.
It begins with the therapist explaining what self-control is and describing how it is sometimes difficult to maintain our self-control if we are moving very fast.
They ask the child to illustrate what this fast-moving looks like. This is an excellent opportunity for the child to get moving and burn off some excess energy!
Next, they introduce a pile of cards that have an action for the child to act out, like playing soccer, climbing a rock wall, or writing a letter.
The child will pick one card at a time and act out whatever is on it, but with a twist—they must do it in slow motion! They will engage in this slow-motion activity for one full minute, and a stopwatch can be used to time it. If there are multiple children, they can take turns acting out and timing each other.
This game is a fun way for children to learn about the concept of self-control and an opportunity for them to build it through play (Hall, Kaduson, & Schaefer, 2002).
In this game therapy technique, the therapist will use bubbles to explain an important concept to the child.
The therapist begins by blowing bubbles with the child. While they are having fun, they will explain to the child that they can make the bubbles bigger by taking deep breaths and blowing slowly into the hoop.
These are “Bubble Breaths,” and they have the power to chase away worries and anxiety too.
The child can then practice Bubble Breaths and make the bubbles as big as possible by taking deep, slow breaths.
This technique is a great way to introduce mindful breathing as well as a good mechanism for dealing with intense emotions like anger or anxiety (Kilpatrick, n.d.).
This narrative therapy technique can help the child to open up and share details of their trauma with the therapist (as well as parents and/or other trusted adults, if needed).
During the therapy session, the therapist will gently encourage the child to walk through the traumatic event, providing details about what happened to them. When the event has been fully detailed and is well understood by the therapist, they will encourage the child to tell the “second story.”
The second story is the same story about the traumatic event but focuses on the child’s reaction to the event instead of the details of what happened. It might be difficult for the child to describe the effects of the trauma, but focusing on themselves and their role in the story can give the child a sense of agency and independence that they may not have had before.
The therapist will encourage them to think about the event and their response in terms of their strengths—how brave they were to talk about it, how tough they are to be able to survive the event, and the ways in which they have grown since the event.
This technique is a great way to get the child to focus on his strengths rather than dwell on the details of the trauma he has suffered (Kilpatrick, n.d.).
This talk therapy technique from Jacqueline Melissa Swank will help the therapist assess and improve the child’s sense of self-esteem and encourage positive self-talk.
This activity requires construction paper, crayons or markers, and sticky notes.
The therapist begins by discussing self-esteem with the child, then asking the child to draw an o
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