Checking In

It is summer time! This means a lot of my kids are out on vacation, at camp during the week, or skipping out on their session time to enjoy the sunshine! With my summer spare time, I have been organizing my office. This week I was creating file folders for storing my resources. I often find that when I am preparing for a session, or writing my treatment plan I can't find the worksheets or resources I need. If only they were in separate organized files! So this has been my summer project.

One resource file I created this week is called, "Checking In." How do you check in with your clients? Some of my kids just walk right in and start to spill, others need a warm-up exercise. Here are a few activities and sheets I use to check in with kids before we get into the meat of the session.


Feeling Faces

To start there are the classic feeling faces. Kids can choose how they are feeling that day or how they felt over the course of the week since your last session. Kids can color the faces or create their own face chart, what do YOU look like when you are sad? angry? nervous? etc. Then each week you can take out their personalized chart and check in!


Feeling Charts

This chart is from the TV show Arthur and transfers checking in from the therapy session to home. For the kids I work with under the age of 6, parents often need to learn many of the techniques we use in session. Teaching parents how to talk about feelings becomes a large part of your work as the therapist. One easy way for parents to start to check in with their child is to chart their feelings. Using this page, both the parent and the child draw in how they felt that day. This becomes part of their routine, maybe after bath time or before dinner parents and children can sit down and have their "feelings time!"

http://www.freeprintablebehaviorcharts.com/feeling%20chart%20pdf/Arthur%20Feelings%20Chart.pdf


For the older ones...

For my middle schoolers or high school kids, I use more reflective techniques to help them tap into how their week was. Again, I find that my older clients tend to have things to talk about from the moment they walk through the door, but other times they need a little help to get started. One worksheet I use with teens, especially teen boys, is "How was your day?" Kids like this sheet because it has a space to doodle how your week was. It also asks what the BEST and WORST part of your week was. These are two simple questions to start with and create many jumping off points for your session.


http://silverboxcreative.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/howwasyourday.pdf




Journaling 

Another great warm-up to use with teens is a journal app on the Ipad! I like to use MaxJournal. This app allows for multiple users to have their own private journal. This way several of your clients can sign onto the app with their own password. I like to give my teen clients the option of either answering a prompt question or free writing for the first ten minutes of session. This warm-up works best with older clients who are insightful, self reflective and creative. You can even put on some nice music while they write! One of my kids really liked to listen to ocean sounds as she wrote. After the ten minutes are up, or my client is done, I ask if they would like to share a bit of what they journaled about that day.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/maxjournal/id364907090?mt=8


What techniques do you use to warm up or check in with your clients?

Happy Counseling :)

Getting to Know You

I love meeting a client for the first time. Usually beforehand you have gotten some background information from Mom, Dad, Grandma or other important people in a child’s life. Then you get to meet your client! The first session for a child can be full of many different feelings. They might be nervous, scared, unsure, anxious, sad..the list goes on. So it can be nice to have an activity to ease the tension and get to know the child.

With my older kiddos, I find they often want to jump into it and tell me what is on their mind. Others are not ready to dive right into it in the first 20 minutes…they need a little warm up!

Here are a few activities I like to use to get to know kids and start to build our therapeutic relationship!

The Question Box

This is a box I have on my desk at all times. It contains strips of paper with all different questions on them. Kids can pull a question to answer themselves or ask the therapist to answer. The can “pass” on certain questions if they are not yet comfortable going there. Some kids like to add questions to the box and it becomes an ongoing project! This is a great way to learn about your client and ask follow-up questions to get more information. Kids love it because they are in control of the information they are giving you in the first session and they get to be a bit silly and loosen up!

Example of Questions

• What 3 words describe you best?
• Who is someone you admire and why?
• If you could only eat one thing for a whole year, what would it be?
• If you could be invisible for a day what would you do?
• What has been the happiest day of your life?
• What is your favorite sound?
• What is the best compliment you have ever received?
• What is your super power?
• What is your favorite movie of all time?
• Describe your perfect day
• Do you have a best friend? What are they like?
• If you change one thing about yourself what would it be and why?

Puzzle About Me

This is a worksheet for younger kids, elementary school age, to express themselves and explore who they are. Kids love to make a puzzle about themselves and it gives you insight into who they are!

 Incorporating an art project into the first session can take some pressure of the child. They may come into their first session thinking counseling means they have to sit in a room and talk, this way they can ease into the process with a fun activity!

“A Child’s First Book About Play Therapy”

By Marc A. Neimiroff, PhD & Jane Annunziata, PsyD

For preschool aged children, I like to read this book in our first session. Reading together is a great way to build rapport and bond.

Younger children might be confused about why they are there and what this thing called “therapy” is. This book explains play therapy and helps a child understand what we will be doing together in session!

Find this book here: http://www.amazon.com/Childs-First-Book-About-Therapy/dp/1557980896

Happy counseling :)

First Post!

Hello and welcome to my blogging experiment! I am a child therapist working in Massachusetts. I see children of all ages and fins myself at least once a week scouring the internet for new ideas or techniques to bring into session. I also like to read scholarly articles..but I find these lack practical skills that I am looking to incorporate into my sessions. My hope is that this blog can be a place for me to record activities, strategies, and skills that have worked well with my kiddos and hear from other counselors as well!

Thank you for joining me on my journey!


AN IMPORTANT NOTE: The information shared on this blog does not represent the view of other professionals in the field of psychology and only reflects the opinion of the author. Posts are NOT intended to diagnose, treat, or replace legal, psychological or medical in person professional help. In order to maintain confidentiality, no personal or identifying information in clients will be provided in this blog.