What to expect when your child is having therapy sessions at Psychology Associates

There are many ways in which a young child can benefit from therapy sessions. For example, there could be a family breakdown with separation or divorce, difficulties at school, attachment or trauma issues, grief or loss, low self-esteem, anxiety or depression. Increasingly, issues such as self-harm and eating disorders are sadly presenting more often in younger children. It may be that the child just needs some added support with understanding their emotional world, to manage strong emotions such as anger, and to develop their emotional literacy to provide them with the tools to better support their own mental health.

Initial Meeting

The first session may be offered for a parent/carer to attend together with the child. The therapist will listen and get a sense of the child and any issues or challenges they may be experiencing. Together, you can collaboratively discuss possible goals or intentions for the work. Confidentiality is also discussed to ensure the child fully understands the nature of the space for them and the different occasions a therapist may need to break confidentiality and talk to others, e.g. for safeguarding purposes. Premeasures are collected with the parent/carer’s view of the child, usually before the first session takes place.

If the child is confident to come to following sessions after this on their own then this is ideal, however this may not always be the case. Once the child attends alone, the therapist will take some basic age appropriate measures from the child’s perspective about how they feel in themselves, within their family and at their school. At the start, it is very much about building a safe, trusting relationship so the therapist may ask about the child’s likes and dislikes and ask questions to find out more about their passions or hobbies. Incorporating elements of what is meaningful to the child can help become ways into their worlds.

How often should sessions take place?

In order to establish a consistent routine for the child and maintain the therapeutic relationship, sessions would normally be once a week, lasting for 50 minutes. A minimum of 10 sessions would be ideal, but some children may need less. Although, in order to work at depth and to support achieving significant change, this amount would be recommended.

What will happen during the session?

Our clinicians are trained in multiple therapeutic approaches and will choose techniques, strategies and activities that best support each unique child. Some children are comfortable to engage with talking therapy alongside other creative activities in session, especially if they are around 9-11 years old. They will also be old enough to work with some basic CBT and psychoeducation to build their awareness of their own thought patterns and habitual behaviours.

However, children up to the age of 8 or 9 often find it much easier to express themselves and any difficulties they are experiencing through therapeutic play or creative arts based therapies. Examples of creative ways of working include drawing, painting, writing, Sandtray Therapy, soft toy play, mask making, puppets, Lego, books/stories and games, or kinetic sand and miniature worlds.

Commonly, some children need support with learning self-regulation and self-soothing techniques to manage outbursts at home or school. In this case, the therapist might introduce breathing game sand techniques to regulate the child’s nervous system. These practices act as a personal toolkit for the child and if practiced regularly, can increase emotional stability and support them to make wiser choices in the moment.

The therapeutic work will be relational and endeavour to create a space which develops trust, where the child feels safe enough to be open and express their authentic self. For many children, therapy supports them to strengthen their sense of self and build self-awareness.

It may be that, during the weeks of therapy, the therapist needs to speak with or meet the parent/carer to gain clarity or understanding on something, such as the broader picture of the child’s world, whilst maintaining confidentiality for the child. If this is required, the therapist would let the child know beforehand that they will be doing this. Sometimes, the child asks the therapist to tell the parent/carer something they feel unable to say themselves.

Positive Ending

Children who have experienced loss, bereavement or a breakdown in family relationships may have negative experiences of endings to significant positive relationships. Therefore, it is a priority for the therapist to provide the child with a positive experience of an ending to the therapeutic relationship when it comes. They will ensure that there is plenty of warning for the child that sessions are coming to an end, and will likely bring a gentle countdown awareness of it into the final sessions. They may offer the child to do a creative piece of work which helps them to consider who they can go to for support once therapy is finished, or a piece of work that highlights what has helped them, what they have learned about themselves and what they will take away with them.

At the end of therapy sessions, post measures will be collected from both the parent/carer and the child to support evaluation and recognition of any progress or change.