I understand how difficult it is for parents to see their child struggling with their emotions, whether they understand what they are and need help dealing with them, or find themselves behaving in ways they don’t like and having thoughts and feelings they’re not comfortable with and may find difficult to express. Being able to work creatively gives children and young people an additional tool in their treasure chest to help share their feelings without having to use words.
When children get to around 9 years old, their brains start to change and develop for adolsence, and it will continue to do so for many years. This doesn’t have to mean that they are destined to struggle throughout this process. Counselling can be helpful to many children and young people, as I am not an authority figure and they don’t need to “be” a certain way in our sessions.
If they struggle to concentrate, are angry and upset, then that is fine. It is integrated into our theraputic process and it is important to me that your child feels comfortable in being their authentic self with me. Counselling gives your child a confidential space, meaning anything they say to me will not be repeated. The only time I will have to break confidentiality is if they are at risk of serious harm to themselves, someone else or if someone is a risk to them.
This is something that I cover in my free consultation, which parents are welcome to attend should your young person want this. I appreciate for a parent this can feel like being shut out, so I hope that by me being clear about my ethics and ways of working demonstrate that I can be an advocate for your child to help them take control of what is going on for them.
