Anna is a 17 year old student in Year 12 who has come to counselling because she is not coping with the stress of her final year. Anna is from a culture where academic success is highly important and she is under intense pressure from her parents to get good grades and go to university. […]
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Children & Adolescents
What Causes School Bullying?
Bullying behaviour is a complex issue and research in the area does not identify the supremacy of any one cause of bullying. Below is a summary overview of key factors that are considered to contribute in various ways, to the likelihood of bullying behaviours. The information below is not a complete list of all factors. […]
- November 3, 2011
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- 119698
- Children & Adolescents, Multicultural Issues, School Counselling
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Play Therapy Activities to Engage Children
In play therapy, children are encouraged to express, through play, all the things they may have difficulty saying or contextualising into words. As a consequence of this primary focus, play therapy has expanded to include most of the expressive art forms including drawing, painting, sculpturing, music, dance, drama, movement, poetry, and storytelling. So while the […]
- July 18, 2011
- 6
- 261828
- Children & Adolescents, Counselling Therapies, Creativity in Counselling
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School Bullying: Quick Facts and Information
There is no universal accepted definition of bullying. Olweus (1993) defines bullying as repeated, aggressive behaviour involving a power imbalance between the bully (perpetrator) and the intended bully victim (Olweus and Limber, 2010). Rigby (2010) defines bullying as a systematic and repeated abuse of power and identifies three aspects to bullying: 1) a desire to […]
- June 28, 2011
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- 8386
- Children & Adolescents, School Counselling
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Counselling Dilemma: A Teenager at Risk of Suicide
Chantelle is 14 and in foster care. Chantelle was removed from her parents’ care at the age of seven and has since had several foster placements. Her last care arrangement ended, one month ago, when her foster family relocated interstate. Child protection workers have found a new foster placement for Chantelle and you have been […]
- February 15, 2011
- 0
- 7007
- Children & Adolescents, Clinical Mental Health, Counselling Dilemmas, Self-harming & Suicide
- Read More
Developing Social Skills with Play Therapy
Social skills include the ways in which the child relates to others in order to make friends, get their needs met, be assertive, employ boundaries and cooperate. In order to develop social skills effectively, it is important that the child understands and experiences different behaviours and their consequences. To achieve this in play therapy, a […]
- September 30, 2010
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- 11989
- Children & Adolescents, Counselling Therapies, Creativity in Counselling
- Read More
Teaching Children to Deal with Emotions
For children to deal effectively with the experience of strong feelings, they must first know how to identify their feelings. It is important to talk to children about their feelings and help them see the link between their feelings and their behaviour. This will help them gain an understanding of how their feelings can affect […]
- September 6, 2010
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- 4326
- Children & Adolescents, Creativity in Counselling
- Read More
Children and Emotional Development
A child’s earliest experiences with emotion most often occurs in the family setting. Consequently, the family plays an important role in the development of emotional understanding, particularly interactions between parents and children. For example, children who possess secure attachments with their parents show greater emotional understanding than those children who do not possess secure attachments […]
- August 23, 2010
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- 43703
- Children & Adolescents, Lifespan Development, Relationship & Families
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Counselling Dilemma: Supporting an Anxious Child
Charlotte is 11. She has been brought along to counselling by her mother, Fran. According to Fran, Charlotte has always been a “quiet and shy” girl. Fran remarks that she is not surprised by this as she too was a reserved and anxious child. In recent weeks however, Fran has noticed that Charlotte has become […]
- August 9, 2010
- 17
- 19238
- Children & Adolescents, Counselling Dilemmas, Relationship & Families
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Book Review: Counseling Children and Adolescents
Vernon, Ann. 512 Pages. 2002, USA: Love Publishing Company Children and adolescents of the 21st century encounter challenges and difficulties that are indicative of contemporary society, thus it is important that as therapists we equip ourselves with the most pertinent up-to-date information available. Counseling children and adolescents (2009) by Ann Vernon acknowledges the changing face […]
- June 7, 2010
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- 3749
- Book Reviews, Children & Adolescents
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Challenges of Adolescence
While the definition of adolescent can differ from culture to culture, it is generally accepted that the time referred to as adolescence is the period between childhood and adulthood, a sort of “no man’s land.” Geldard and Geldard (2006) explain that adolescence is a time in a young person’s life where they move from dependency […]
- February 11, 2010
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- Children & Adolescents, Lifespan Development
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How to Build Rapport with Parents
Parents can play the key role in initiating and generating behaviour change in their children. Parents have the potential to inspire their children directly (by applying reinforcers and other behaviour modification strategies) and indirectly (by providing a safe, supportive and encouraging environment). As counsellors, working with parents can enhance our potential to promote successful outcomes […]
- January 22, 2010
- 0
- 13653
- Children & Adolescents, Counselling Theory & Process, Relationship & Families
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Parenting Styles in Counselling
Many parents who have come to the counselling session are prepared to speak with the counsellor to gain some insight into an issue or problem. But some parents do not understand why they need to be involved in the counselling sessions, and others know why, but do not want to be involved. Silent Some parents […]
- January 8, 2010
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- 3158
- Children & Adolescents, Relationship & Families
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Motivational Enhancement Therapy
Motivational enhancement is a style of person-centred counselling developed to facilitate change in health-related behaviours. The core principle of the approach is negotiation rather than conflict. It aims to help people explore and resolve their ambivalence about behaviour change. It combines warmth and empathy with focused reflective listening and the development of discrepancy between where […]
- November 30, 2009
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- 7471
- Children & Adolescents, Clinical Mental Health, Counselling Therapies, Diagnosis & Treatment
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Loss, Grief and Children
There can be many reasons for children to be experiencing grief and loss. These may include; the death of a parent, pet, friend or grandparent, family separation or divorce, change of their living environment and exposure to traumatic events. Children experience grief in their own unique way, while at the same time every child’s grief […]
- November 26, 2009
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- 3091
- Children & Adolescents, Loss & Grief
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