Children

Strategies for Career Counselling

As a counsellor, you will likely encounter clients who are anxious about career-related concerns. They may be kids, teenagers, or adults, and may come from any number of social or economic strata; vocational pressure effects people of all demographics, and there is a robust literature that suggests strategies that counsellors can use to attend to […]

7 Powerful Strategies to Help Your Child Balance Their Brain Budget

This article has been republished with the permission of Superpower Kids. Superpower Kids develop fun, engaging social and emotional learning programs for children aged 5 to 10 years. You can find more informative articles like this at Superpower Kids Blog It never feels good to blow your budget and go into overdraft. Yet, going into […]

The Dangers of Teen Sexting (And How to Help Their Parents Help Them)

You may have faced this scenario before: anguished parents turn up in your rooms and plead with you for help: their cherished teenager, they find, is now sending and/or receiving sexually explicit text messages, photos, or videos. Oh, what to do? Unfortunately, this phenomenon is now common and increasing in frequency, even as the average […]

Counsellor Tips: Principles of Good Parenting

Have you ever wrestled with a problem, walked away from it for a period, and then ended up having an epiphany while you were officially “off duty” from the problem? Laurence Steinberg, an internationally renowned expert on psychological development during adolescence, talks about having such an experience leading to the development of his book on […]

Play Therapy Activities to Develop Social Skills

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 behaviors and their consequences. To achieve this in play therapy, a […]

Book Review: Acceptance and Mindfulness Treatments for Children and Adolescents

Greco, L.A., and Hayes, S.C. (2008). Acceptance and Mindfulness Treatments for Children and Adolescents. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications. Acceptance and mindfulness based treatments are identified within the field of third-generation behaviour therapies. These approaches seek to move beyond traditional behavioural and cognitive concepts to acknowledge contextual aspects. Acceptance and Mindfulness Treatments for Children and […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]