Summary of contents
A Counsellor’s Companion:
Welcome – A short letter written to children about counselling
Colossal Courage – What happens in counselling? What is important in the child’s first counselling session? Working with parents; Magic Tricks; Online Counselling.
What’s Wonderful About You? – introduces therapeutic engagement techniques that allow the child client to share more about who they are, separate to the problem (A Narrative Therapy approach)
Introduce me to the Problem – the use of metaphors, and how to begin externalising the problem; How to explore the history of the problem.
Hacking the Problem – Working with teenagers around anxiety; Single session successes and more case studies from age 8yrs +
Roller Coaster of Emotions – Creative Interventions to increase emotional awareness; Grounding and Mindfulness;
The Fork in the Road – What is anger? Working with parents; Responding to trauma and self-care.
The Unfairness of Loss – What is grief? Developmental changes around about grief and loss; Disenfranchised grief; Loss after family violence; Depression and risk.
Therapeutic Stories – How might folktales or stories be helpful? Unpack questions after a story; Four examples of how a story told can facilitate change; How to use therapeutic storytelling; Helpers on the journey; A story for troubling thoughts.
Power Rules – Adolescents push back; Fear Response; Creative ways to introduce the concept of power dynamics; Bullying; First nations awareness; Adolescent abuse towards parents.
Philosophy and Making sense of life’s problems – Recognition of a child’s journey.
Who’s on your team? – The Team of Life; Naming your team and what it stands for; Tree of Life.
Saying Goodbye – Therapeutic documents; Measuring outcomes; Family meetings; The last meeting.
Safety First – Confidentiality; Duty of Care to Protect Children; Responding to self-harm and risk; Family Violence; Specialist support services; Indigenous children and families; Supervision.
