Therapeutic work with Children
Counselling can help older children (age 12 upwards) who would like to talk to a counsellor about their problems. The counsellor will listen and try to understand and help the child work through any problems they might have. Counselling can be long term, or short term (i.e. up to six sessions).
The child might want help to work through some of the difficulties that they experienced. Some of these feelings might include:
- Depression
- Adoption
- Anxiety and panic
- Stress
- Guilt
- Abuse
- Bullying
- Identity issues (race, sexuality)
- Feelings of self harm or suicide
- Lack of confidence and low self esteem
- Difficulties with parents
- Feelings about parents separating or divorce
- Anger issues
- Eating Disorders
- Bereavement
….or anything else that is troubling them.
Life Story work is a way of helping children (age 5 upwards) work through difficulties they face or bring from the past. Traumas such as difficult moves in their lives, separation from one or both of their parents, coping with the confusion of their parents’ separation, choosing between their parents, or having been adopted. This approach helps them to talk about difficult experiences and understand them therapeutically.
The process helps children put together accounts of their lives through drawings, pictures, and documents using multimedia arts, and takes a minimum of six weeks for an hour every week.