Email: dragonflycounselling2024@gmail.com Phone/Message: 07564693803
How Counselling Works with Children
Introduction
I work with children of all ages, from 5 through to teenagers within my counselling space. The approaches will adapt depending on age; abilities and need. With younger children in particular, I have access to a wide range of creative and sensory therapeutic activities, which can help make the process more accessible and less anxiety provoking.
I will outline more detail about some of the methods that I have available as well as providing information and resources to support.
Children's Therapy Activities
Sand Play
Writing/Journaling
Art/Drawing
Using a sand tray and a range of different characters and symbols, is a fun, non-threatening way for a young person to be able to express their inner thoughts and feelings.
Through using the different toys/characters to represent real life experiences, the child can be supported to tell their story in a less pressured way. It can reduce the need to use or find the words to express challenging things.
Art/Drawing
Writing/Journaling
Art/Drawing
Using different art or craft activities can provide a fun and accessible way for the young person to feel safe in a therapeutic environment.
Alongside this, it is also a way that they can express their thoughts and feelings through the patterns/drawings/colours that they choose to use in their work.
Writing/Journaling
Writing/Journaling
Writing/Journaling
Words can be so powerful but at times it can be hard to verbally express these. Through writing or journalling, you can express your thoughts and feelings without having to form the words out loud.
Journalling has no format to it, there is no need to write neatly, in sentences or grammatically correctly. It is your words, expressed in whatever way suits you.
For childre and young people, many journal prompts are available to help them work out what they would like to write about.
Games
Activity Cards/Sheets
Writing/Journaling
Using games in therapy is useful for a number of reasons.
It can help build rapport between the therapist and young person. It can also provide a non-threatening focus/activity that can be engaged in whilst the child is talking about challenging situations.
Using games also helps young children to develop their sense of rules; boundaries; sharing; winning and losing; problem solving; patience and communication.
Stories
Activity Cards/Sheets
Activity Cards/Sheets
Using stories with young people are a rich source for so many areas of development. I use a range of texts and books if appropriate, that deal with different life challenges and experiences.
Seeing a character in a story book who is experiencing similar things to you can help the young person have an outside perspective. It also allows them to understand associated emotions and actions that they may be experiencing.
Using stories is a powerful way to help a young child to undertstand, express and process their own emotions.
Activity Cards/Sheets
Activity Cards/Sheets
Activity Cards/Sheets
I have access to a wide range of activity cards or documents that some young people find useful to help them focus within the session.
These resources can support with a wide range of things including supporting the young perso in being able to open up about their experiences. They also help to understand and develop concepts such as:
- Emotions and Feelings
- Self Esteem
- Understanding who they are
- Core beliefs and values
- Unhelpful thinking patterns
Mindfulness/Sensory
Grounding Techniques
Mindfulness/Sensory
Mindfulness activities and sensory objects are excellent for helping a young child to regulate their nervous system.
They can help to calm an overwhelmed or anxious nervous system and provide an outlet for the young person to return to a more regulated state.
Puppets/Soft Toys
Grounding Techniques
Mindfulness/Sensory
Through using puppets or soft toys, young children can project their innermost thoughts, feelings and experiences through the voice of the toy. This helps to give them a level of emotional removal at first, to be able to express what they need to. It helps to shift the thoughts, feelings and experiences that the child has had, onto another, in order for them to be able to articulate.
Using puppets and soft toys can also help the child to act out or dramatise certain situations or experiences that they are finding hard to process and talk about. Using them in therapy can help a young person to learn to express, process and understand their challenges and emotions.
Grounding Techniques
Grounding Techniques
Grounding Techniques
Grounding techniques are coping strategies designed to anchor you to the present moment. By diverting focus away from overwhelming emotions, flashbacks, or anxious thoughts, they help calm your nervous system and bring your attention back to the physical "here and now". These include techniques such as breathing exercises or being mindful of your environment through using your senses.
Some examples can be found in the resources section.