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 :)