Important Things you Need to Know about Counselling for Youth
Here at Rebound, we’re passionate about helping families supporting children in maintaining optimal mental health. We love when parents and caregivers reach out to us with that same passion and desire to help their child or dependant. To help support these parents and caregivers, we’ve put together some key information that you need to know when getting your child or dependant started with therapy!
Communication comes with limitations
We completely understand that parents and guardians want to stay updated and informed on the progress and discussions that take place within their child or dependants therapy sessions. Our child and youth therapists often receive requests from parents and guardians for updates, check ins and disclosure of information that takes place in session. However, what many don’t realize is that there are critical limitations on communication, due to our obligations to uphold confidentiality with all of our clients.
What does this mean?
- This means, that as your child’s therapist, we are unable to share with you the details of the therapy sessions that take place with your child.
- Of course, there are limits to confidentiality, such as if the client is a harm to themselves or to others, in which case we are obligated to report this and break confidentiality.
- We can only communicate with you what we have consent to share, from our client.
For parents and guardians, it can be difficult and frustrating to not know exactly what transpires in these sessions, however, it’s critical to us (and our regulating colleges) that your child has a private, confidential space to obtain therapeutic support!
What can we communicate about?
Of course, this doesn’t mean you’ll be completely left in the dark! There are some important aspects associated with therapy that we will connect with you about!
The Practical ‘Stuff’
We’ll stay in touch regarding booking, billing, and other practical aspects of therapy such as scheduling, pacing, or invoicing. Your child or dependant will be made aware of these communications as well, so they’re not surprised when we need to communicate with you!
Updates & Support
If important updates arise that your child is interested and willing to share, we’ll support them in sharing these details with you! We work with our clients to determine what would be helpful for them to share and help them develop the voice to do so!
Sometimes, parental or guardian support is important for progress! With client consent, sometimes we may work with parents or guardians to provide you with the tools and information needed to best support your child.
Limits to service
There are instances in which we cannot provide services to children or youth and it’s important that you’re aware of these instances!
Dual Parent Consent
Due to ethical considerations, At Rebound Total Health, we require both custodial parents to consent to services. If one custodial parent is not consenting to treatment, we are unfortunately unable to provide counselling services for your child.
Court and Custody
In the event that custody and/or court proceeding are taking place, it may be therapeutically beneficial to wait to commence counselling services. We determine this on a case-by-case basis as there are many factors involved when making this decision!
Assessments or Access reports
To due ethical considerations, we do not report on information shared during session, nor do we provide assessment reports, access reports or recommendations for the purposes of court proceedings.
We DO provide counselling services in instances when both custodial parents are consenting to services and therapy is not for the purposes of legal proceedings.
6 Key Requirements to help your child get the most out of therapy!
1) Privacy
It’s important that your child has a quiet, private space to do therapy to help them build trust in their therapist and get comfortable working with them. We understand that children may want their parents or guardian present and we’re here to support that, but it’s important to note that this won’t be a long-term solution for your child. Over time, we’ll set a plan and work with the child and you to allow the opportunity for the client to do therapy alone, (with parents safely close by, of course!) to build that therapeutic alliance, trust, and privacy!
2) Progress is a process
We hate to watch our children struggle, so it completely makes sense that we want fast results in therapy! However, quick results aren’t usually the case when it comes to mental health. When working with children, building a trusting therapeutic alliance is critical, and can take a very long time in some cases. From there, we work with children to slowly change behaviours, responses and even thoughts that aren’t serving them! All of these things take time and it’s critical that parents and guardians are patient and able to support their children in this way. Progress looks different for every client, and its important that parents know we don’t offer ‘quick fixes’, but rather well thought out, thorough therapeutic support.
3) Consistency
As is the case with many things, consistency is key when it comes to therapy! When getting to know your child in the beginning phases of therapy, your therapist will provide some recommendations on therapy pacing. Being that therapy is largely dependant on trust and a strong therapeutic alliance, it’s important that we see your child on a regular basis (especially at the beginning) to build up this foundation! Our well-trained child & youth therapists will best know what type of pacing would benefit your child and we will do our best to make that work within your child’s schedule!
4) Boundaries
As we work as a team to help your child/dependent with their mental health, its important we all respect one another’s boundaries. For example, it’s important to respect if your child does or does not want to share certain aspects of therapy with you. Vice versa, it’s important to respect the therapist when they can/cannot disclose certain information to you. We work to respect your child’s boundaries and will go at their pace, allow them autonomy and a voice throughout the process.
5) Every Child is different
When working with a new client, we always recognize that each child/youth is unique and will require unique and tailored treatment. Our therapists are trained in variety of different modalities and approaches and will tailor the treatment they provide to your child’s unique needs, personality, style, and receptiveness. This also means that pacing of sessions and duration of treatment will look different for different children! Many times, parents and guardians can have pre-conceived notions of what child/youth therapy may look like, or what they should expect. Recognizing that we are here to support your child’s best interest, it’s important to respect that therapy will look different for everyone!
6) Closure is Key
Often-times, once we start seeing progress, children stop coming to therapy. Makes sense, right? While parents might think children are ready to stop attending therapy, it’s critical that they receive a closure session. A closure session is used to help the child feel closure and resolution with the therapeutic alliance they’ve built over time. It also allows children to feel prepared moving forward without their therapist and reminds them of the skills they’ve built throughout their therapeutic experience. This also allows your therapist to provide recommendations for your child’s success and optimal mental health!