Introduction to

counselling children and

young people.

Nicola Heptinstall

Outrageous

Liars

About Place2Be

Who we are

• National award-winning charity

• Established in 1994

• Improving children’s mental health and wellbeing

What we do

• School Based Counselling

• Advice and Support for school / community based professionals

• Training and Capacity Building

Where we work

• 20 areas across UK

• 75,000 children in 200 schools

• 20,000 children reached through training

Why Place2Be is needed

• Over 1 million children in the UK have a mental health problem

• Nearly half of young people with mental health problems

drop out of full time education by age 15

• Over 90% of young offenders

had a mental health problem in childhood

• 1 in 6 adults have a mental health problem

• The World Health Organisation predicts that

depression will be the 2nd largest killer

of all parents by 2020

• Adult Mental Health problems cost UK economy £105 billion per year

Aims of The Day

• Examine the differences between counselling adults

and children

• Experience the power of images and metaphors as

containers of conscious and unconscious experiences

and feelings

• Develop an understanding of the value of images and

metaphors in the therapeutic process as a way of

exploring emotions and thoughts at a symbolic level

and the importance of keeping aesthetic distance

• Experience joining play through the metaphor and

reflecting on the impact upon yourselves

Sub-Aims to hold in mind

• How do I respond to each type of

material?

• How does my own childhood experience

influence how I build relationships with

children?

• How does my style as a counsellor impact

on what I take to a child based therapeutic

relationship?

Structure of the day

9.30 – start

11.00 – 11.15 tea /coffee

1.00 – 2.00 lunch

3.00 – 3.15 tea / coffee

4.30 - finish

Group Agreement

• Confidentiality

• Valuing each individuals knowledge and

experience

• Speaking from the ‘ I ‘

• Personal responsibility for what one

shares in the group

• Time boundaries

• Mobiles off – unless waiting for urgent

call, if so to inform group

Differences & similarities?

• Divide into three groups.

• Each to spend 5 minutes brainstorming

the differences and the similarities

between counselling children and

counselling adults – record each idea on a

post-it.

• Display post-its on flipchart – to be shared

with the wider group

Break time

Tea / coffee time – back in 15 minutes!

The Importance of Play

• Making sense of the world is an enormous task for children

• Children are often less able to find words to express thoughts and feelings, play is of crucial significance

• Children are often at risk of being overwhelmed by feelings or events; solitary play can play a vital part here. Children use play to help them come to terms with difficult events.

• As adults we use ‘play’ to make sense of things we don’t understand

Sensory Play

Projective Play

Dramatic play and role play

Story Telling

How it works

"Children playing in therapy create a symbolic or

metaphoric world where the power to change or

reconstruct events belong to the children. In this

play space the children make acts of

representation through which they can interpret

or re-interpret their own experiences by playing

imaginary worlds.“

Cattanach, A. (1992). Play Therapy with Abused

Children. London: Jessica Kingsley.

What we do

• Listening

• Image Making

• Joining with Metaphor

• Joining with Projective Play

• Joining with Sensory Play

How does this lead to change?

• Allows children to “reframe” their

experience

• Enables them to take responsibility for

their behaviour in context

• They can safely replay experience both

traumatic and formative

• Benefits of attachment – influencing their

“internal working model” (Bowlby et al)

Case Study

Macy was struggling to cope with her parents'

separation. The separation had been very visible to

the children and their father had verbally blamed the

children for not seeing him. This was very difficult for a

10 year old girl to comprehend, so Macy potentially

carried this blame and withdrew from her classmates.

Macy is beginning to explore her confused feelings

towards her dad through the art making process, often

depicting devils. She also regularly uses fantasy in the

sessions as a way of coping. Her teacher has reported

that Macy seems much more settled and has made a

friend in her class.

Any

Questions?

LunchtimeBack in an hour

Images Game

Metaphor

• There are many forms of metaphor that

exist in the counselling room – including

verbal ones

• The purpose of therapy is not to bring the

metaphor in to conscious awareness

although this may happen

• If the meanings within metaphor remain

outside of both the counsellors and the

child's awareness it is still “working”

Drawing on your existing Skills

• Listening

• Reflecting

• Observing

• Questioning

• Offering the core conditions

Story Structure

• A central character/hero or heroine set in a context.

• What is he/she searching for in life?

• Who is the friend or helper of the main character?

• What obstacles lie in the way of the achievement of their goal?

• What strategies do they use to overcome these obstacles?

• What happens next? What is the resolution?

Case Study

• Lara, a 12 year old girl used a series of pictures to develop

her own story and express her feelings. Her pictures were

metaphors told through favourite TV series' characters with

themes of strength and heroes.

• Lara had been referred with a history of domestic violence in

the family, low self-esteem and depression. Her stories

seemed to empower her and one week she said, "Every

picture tells a story." At a later stage in her counselling she

was more able to speak of her feelings directly, particularly of

anger. She wanted to be like one of her favourite animal

characters, linking this to her hidden anger and feeling

unnoticed. She said that in the Place2Be room she is not

angry, as it is "my world". She was enabled to express anger

at times in a way that she seemed to feel was manageable

and accepted in her "world" of the session.

Final Thoughts

• Examining your own experience of play

and childhood

• Observing your own relationship with

these creative materials

• Practical considerations – what materials

should I have in the room and how do I

deploy them?

Next time

• Detailed focus on attachment theory and

its relevance

• Contracting & boundaries

• Supervision –observations & reflections

• Endings

• Further skills practice

Thank You

Any Questions

Endings

• Acknowledging & talking about the ending with children in advance

• Think ahead with the child about how they might deal with the ending

• Acknowledge the child’s feelings around endings

• Ritualise endings by making cards, stories, celebrations

• Celebrate achievements & the relationship

Supervision reflection

• What does this mean for them?

• What does this mean for me?

• How does this impact the

therapeutic relationship?

• How do I continue to work with

this?

Internal Working Model

I am safe and

lovable. I know

where to go for

help if I need it.

The world is a

mostly safe place

I am not sure

what is going

to happen next

and I’m

worried. I

might tell you

to go away but

be very clingy.

Go away! Leave

me alone. I don’t

need you and I

don’t care about

anything or

anybody. If you

come too close or

if I’m in danger I

might lash out.

Relationships are

great.

Relationships can

be great but they

can be horrible as

well. You just

never know.

Relationships are

way too unreliable

and are sometimes

downright

dangerous.

What the counsellor holds in mind

• How does the child relate to the counsellor? Are we controlled; ignored; looked after; attacked?

• How do they use the materials? Are some avoided? Is there contact and absorption, or no connection?

• How do they play – freely, without inhibition? Fearfully? Carefully? With violence? Organised or disorganised?

• What are the themes that arise?

• How do they enter and leave the room?

• How do they hear what the therapist says?

Types of attachment

I am safe and

lovable. I know

where to go for

help if I need it.

The world is a

mostly safe place

I am not sure

what is going

to happen next

and I’m

worried. I

might tell you

to go away but

be very clingy.

Go away! Leave

me alone. I don’t

need you and I

don’t care about

anything or

anybody. If you

come too close or

if I’m in danger I

might lash out.

Anxious avoidantAnxious

ambivalentSecure

Dangers

• Reactivation of issues

• Colluding with disassociation tendencies

• Managing boundaries and contract

• Over attachment

• Vicarious traumatisation

• Ending the work

All for supervision