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From: Charlie Healey
Date: 04 Oct 2008
Time: 13:09:29 -0500
Remote Name: 76.84.69.211
Thanks for your comments. I think that I partially answered your question in the last part of Principle #6 in that parents need to be supportive and accept the decision that their child makes about not wanting to continue in therapy. If the parents continue to insist that treatment continue, I ask the child to tell me how he/she feels about continuing in treatment. Then, I ask the parents without the child around to discuss why they want their child to continue even though they know that their child doesn't like coming to therapy. After I talk with the child and parents independently, I then bring everyone together and I serve as a facilitator to have the child tell the parents how he/she feels and then the parents have their turn. I also provide my input, indicating the pros and cons of discontinuing therapy or not. Through this negotiation, I think it is pretty clear which direction the therapy will take. My hope is that everyone can be comfortable with whatever decision is made but I also say that we will evaluate the decision again in a few weeks/months after a few more therapy sessions have been conducted. Usually, by that time, parents have more time to look for specific signs that I tell them to look for that will indicate their child does or does not want to continue with therapy.