Psychoanalytic child therapy has a long history dating back to the foundational clinical work of Anna Freud and Melaine Klein. This type of therapy is inherently child-centered, meaning that the therapist focuses on the child’s current stage of development, emotional and interpersonal patterns and environmental ...
Children between the ages of four and eleven years of age tend to struggle to understand and verbalize their big feelings. As a result, children often learn to cope with these feelings by either shutting down and avoiding their feelings altogether or by responding to their feelings by acting them out behaviorally ...
Children between the ages of twelve and seventeen fall into the adolescent category and are undergoing complex physical, social, cognitive and psychological changes. The literature supports the fact that adolescents are struggling with unique changes and developmental milestones compared to young children and ...
Having a child in therapy can be stressful. It can bring up anxieties about being a good enough parent, confusion about how to best support your child through their struggles, and questions about how therapy helps. These are just a few of the reasons why clinical literature and best practice support regular parent work sessions; meetings with your child’s psychologist where you can discuss concerns, bring up new information about your child’s life, and get an update from the psychologist about how therapy with your child is going.
Children need to feel comfortable expressing themselves and sharing their difficult thoughts and feelings during therapy, but that does not mean you need to be in the dark. A few things to consider bringing up in your next parent session with your child’s psychologist:
Relationship changes, moves, new jobs, etc.
Such as peer and sibling conflicts, issues at school, and challenges with developmental milestones
How child psychoanalytic therapy works, and what you can do as a parent to best support your child
Your thoughts and feelings about your relationship with your child
Your child’s psychologist will work with you on scheduling parent work sessions based on clinical indications. The frequency of parent work sessions is normally based on the severity and complexity of a child’s problems, but generally a parent work session every two weeks to once a week is typical.