Counseling is a tool for development and enhancement of life. In a counseling process, a skillful counselor is able to help patients who want to develop themselves and make changes in their lives. Counseling with children is a beneficial concept in the field of counseling as it helps in the development process of a child becoming an adult. This ranges from a young kid, through adolescence, youth, and finally becoming an adult. It is necessary to apply exceptional care in child counseling as the patient may seem undemanding, but have complex issues. The nature of handling and acquiring information on the problem from the client requires a high level of expertise.
Counseling with children bases its scope in the field of child psychology. It offers solutions that appertain to problems faced by children and their families. It has emerged to give beneficial practical solutions that improve the quality of living and experiences in social avenues; schools and homes. This is fundamental in the growth of a child and brings a sense of relief to patients and their loved ones.
Counseling with children is a crucial form of counseling that requires a high level of expertise. When done in the right way, counseling can have a significant impact to the child. There are two crucial factors in counseling a child: to understand the patient’s level of development; to build and establish trust with the patient. These are to be followed at every stage in the process. It is fundamental to assess and understand the development level in the overall success of the process, and in order to issue efficient and effective treatment. Offering trust and support helps the patient open up, and the doctor is able to provide a better cure on understanding the problem. It provides a collaborative approach between the patient and the counselor.
Areas in Counseling with Children
Counseling of children addresses various disorders in child development. These include attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), reactive attachment disorder (RAD), special needs, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), conduct disorder (CD), and disabilities.
ADHD (Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder)
The hyperactivity and impulsivity experienced by children is diagnosed as ADHD. Many children exhibit symptoms of ADHD which has become one of the most frequently diagnosed childhood neurobehavioral disorders. The symptoms include hyperactivity, increase levels of inattention, and impulsivity that occurs persistently. Hyperactivity occurs when the child is extremely active. Adventure based counseling (ABC) offers best counseling for ADHD. ABC enables children to engage in practical tasks that use their strengths while harnessing their need to exert energy. ABC can also be used in attention-seeking patients by channeling their strengths to completing practical tasks that may be assigned. For impulsivity, the activities harness the impulsive movement for a more strength-based developmental counseling perspective.
The symptoms require creative counseling approaches that are dynamic, action-oriented, and beyond the scope of traditional talk therapy. A child experiences demands in classrooms, social avenues and at home from peers of the same age. This increased demand has a far-reaching effect on the child’s ability to function socially and academically. Elevated symptoms are associated with maternal depression. The approaches are the actions carried out by the counselor. They include building a relationship with the child, exploring the child’s lifestyle, encouraging the child to gain insight into his/her lifestyle, and re-orienting and re-educating the child. These may be done as a sequence or each individually. The counselor can implement these approaches through circles of comfort, creating a distraction field, and in implementing a rock wall.
Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD)
RAD is diagnosed as a development of inappropriate social related issues in most cases appearing in the early ages before 5 years. It is associated with a pathogenic care. Pathogenic care is characterized by persistent disregard for the child’s basic common needs; comfort, stimulation and affection. There are two types of RAD: inhibited and disinhibited. Inhibited involves a pattern of mixed emotions and opinions towards someone. Disinhibited involves patterns of indiscrimination. The social relatedness is an aspect the child-parent relationship disturbance. This disturbance defines the feature of RAD despite the evolution of the disorder.
Symptoms of RAD in children include lack of smiling, response with head-turning and abnormal physical development such as failure to thrive with no apparent reason. These are closely related to other disorders. The counselor should appreciate the age of the client when diagnosing.
Situations arise where RAD may be confused with other disorders. A child portraying the symptom associated with social relatedness in poor communication can be diagnosed as language disorder. When a communication problem is present, the situation may be diagnosed as one of atypical nature rather than an attachment disorder. A child may also have RAD symptoms, but they fail to be addressed when still young. On reaching adolescence, the child can have multiple diagnoses as the symptoms overlap.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
PTSD is a psychiatric disorder that arises from an encounter of a traumatic event. It effects on an individual’s family by making it weak and infirm. A higher IQ, social resources or support, and adaptive coping can reduce the effect of weakening and infirming. After a traumatic experience, many people prefer not to rekindle the memories and the negative emotions they evoke.
Re-experiencing a traumatic event is a symptom of PTSD. It is often in the form of intrusive thoughts. An individual having this symptom will not want to re-live the event. One of the ways of checking it is by examination of mental control. The control of the mental state of the child is critical in the treatment of PTSD disorder. Suppression approach is used as a mode of mental control. The clients’ intrusive thoughts are suppressed following a negative experience.
Conduct Disorder (CD)
Conduct disorder is a behavioral disorder that is displayed in the conduct of the child. Children with CD are often referred to by the society as being ‘bad’. They have a tendency of disobeying rules and display of violent actions. It can be diagnosed in a child as early as three years of age. It is common for children to portray behavior related problems of being disobedient to rules. The behavioral problems are diagnosed as conduct disorder when the problems stretch over time.
Symptoms of CD include aggressiveness, destructiveness, rule violation and deceitfulness. An aggressive child displays behavior that has potential to cause harm. This may be in fighting, bullying, coercing and intimidating peers. In destructiveness, the child deliberately destroys property. This may be through vandalism, arson, or destroying property in the house. Rule violation as the name suggests indicates a child who intentionally does action against the custom and norms of the society. This may be in skipping school, being sexually active at a tender age, or arriving late at home after curfew. Deceitfulness is a symptom attributed to the lying nature of a child. The child may lie to obtain favors from parents, steal (without violence), or break into houses and restricted offices in an institution.
It is crucial for the counselor to evaluate the patient in order to diagnose the disorder. A child may exhibit these symptoms and at the same time have overlapping disorders. The extent of the symptoms will reveal the level of the disorder. Conduct behavior can be managed if diagnosed in the early stages of child development. The contrary to this treatment leads to a dysfunctional adult who has problems in managing jobs, family and relationships in general.
Oppositional Defiant Disorder
ODD is a mental disorder characterized by hostile and disobedient behavior in children. It is diagnosed to children who are negativistic, hostile, and defiant. The symptoms should be evident for at least six for proper diagnosis. It is interconnected to ADHD as they both have shared and unique influences to children. Elevated symptoms are associated with family dysfunction, low parenting competence, and a high internalization of the symptoms in the child. The treatment of ODD involves the management of the core symptoms of ADHD.
Screening for ODD is crucial in the diagnosis of ADHD. Its effective treatment reduces the risk of elevated conditions in adolescent and adult years. The conditions include conduct disorder, depression and substance dependence.
Legal and Ethical Issues in Counseling children
Counselors are sometimes baffled by the difference between ethical standards and laws. Conflict arises when there is a conflict between the two. The question posed by most is; what should one do when ethical standards and laws conflict each other? Professional bodies develop ethical standards to govern the practice of their members. They are able to serve three purposes: to educate their members about ethical conduct, to provide a mechanism for accountability, and to serve as a means for improving professional practice. Laws are based on generally accepted norms as well, but they are more prescriptive and have been added into a legal code. If the counselor does not adhere to the laws, he/she risks significant sanctions and penalty as compared to ethical issues.
Ethical Issues
Counselors need to respect the right of patients making their own decision based on their beliefs and custom and should not impose their values on the client. This is the issue of autonomy which refers to independence in decision making.
Counselors should treat clients according to their needs. This ensures patients are given a unique and effective treatment that is concerned with their problem. This addresses the issue of justice. Justice is attained by treating everyone equally, but this does not mean the same treatment for all.
Counselors need to eliminate the aspects that pose hazards to patients. They should do the right thing by prioritizing the interest of the client. This is the issue of beneficence which refers to doing what is in the best interest of the client.
Non-maleficence is an ethical issue requiring a counselor not to harm others.
Counselors must honor all their obligations to the patients. This begins with the relationship between the counselor and the patient. This addresses the issue of fidelity which refers to being loyal, faithful, and honoring obligations made.
Ethical Issues Conflict with Legal Issues
When laws and legal standards appear to conflict with each other, the counselor will attempt to resolve this in a responsible way. The counselor must inform the patient of the conflict. As there are more significant penalties in legal issues, counselors tend to follow the legal action if the client is not harmed.
There dilemmas facing counselors working with children can be addressed in confidentiality, privileged communication, consent, and competency issues.
Confidentiality
Clients are assured that sensitive information they discuss in the sessions is confidential. Confidentiality is an ethical standard that ensures counselors respect the patient’s right to privacy. The American Counseling Association (ACA) provides an exception to confidentiality when a client is a minor who is unable to provide voluntary, informed consent. It states that parents and guardians may be included in the counseling process as appropriate and act in the best interest of the client.
Privileged communication
This is the legal right that describes the privacy of the counselor-client communication. Confidentiality is an ethical standard while privileged communication is a legal issue granted by the law. Counselors are supposed to obey the rule of Law when it conflicts with ethical standards. Counselors are advised not to keep a record of information that may potentially harm the client if disclosed
Consent
The ACA code of ethics requires a parent or guardian to be included in the counseling process. Counselors need to inform the parents of a minor’s decision to enter into counseling. A minor may seek counseling without the parent’s consent. In this case, the privacy rights of the minor need to be addressed along with the legal rights of the parent/guardian. Many parents do not understand that their children can seek treatment without their consent. Counselors need to be prepared for the aftermath of parents discovering private issues about their children.
When the client is a minor who cannot give consent, the counselor protects the client’s best interest. The counselor shows the benefits, limitations and scope of the services performed.
Biblical Values
Biblical values can be used in counseling with children in teaching them right living. The bible may be considered as revealed truth to humans. The truth is discoverable through revelation and observing creation. The bible does have a lot to say about counseling and how to communicate with people. The fundamental concepts of psychology reside in the bible. It should be noted that as much as the bible can be expounded to provide for counseling setting, it does not contain all the information. God provides the bible as a living manual, but He never intended it to contain all the truth there is. John 21:25 says that Jesus did more than what was documented in the books as they (books) could not contain all of the information.
Human errors can be evident in applying in interpretation to the bible. God’s Word is accurate, but the interpretation by man is inaccurate. Human error also appears in the application. Paul says in Romans 1:18 that there are men that hold the truth in unrighteousness. He is saying that the truth is being suppressed from the people who need it.
The bible provides an insight to psychology that aid to make the latter complete. There are many questions that humans have which psychology cannot provide answers to. The bible provides spiritual wellness that attempts to fill the gap. It helps someone to understand the purpose and meaning of life. This insight can be used to help children understand at an early age that they have a destiny. This may help to elevate the moral standards and shift thought to spiritual matters.
The bible shows values essential in Christian living. These are referred to as the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Galatians 5:22 says that the fruit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These values when practiced by children may cause the symptoms of the disorders in children to fade away. This is a continuous process that involves the child learning the meaning of each value. The child is reminded on each session of this continuous process.
Personal Reflection
I believe that child counseling should be done in the early stages of development of a disorder development. Social demands and expectations increase with age. Failure to address the disorder at an early age will lead to the complexity as other disorder may arise. As discussed some of the disorders interconnect with each other. It is fundamental to diagnose each disorder with much care to give effective treatment.
In my research, I was able to appreciate that client’s cases are unique to the client. A successful treatment to one client may not succeed in the counseling process of another. It is evident that diagnosis should be done independently with minimal reference on historical attributes.
Ethical and legal issues are significantly considered in child counseling. To minimize areas that contribute to conflict, I wish to engage myself in understanding the ACA Code of Ethics. With this knowledge it becomes easier to advise a client, as well as plan a course of action in case of eventualities. An eventuality may arise where a child infected with Sexually Transmitted Disease (STI) requests for counseling. The parent or guardian may have a wide range of reactions on getting the information. It is vital to plan ahead in such a situation.
Leaning the statutory laws governing the field of child counseling is necessary in order to avoid penalties and jail terms that result from disobeying them. With the help of an attorney, it is possible to understand the Law. This will enable me to protect the rights of my client. With a vast knowledge of the law requirements, it becomes easier to have the best interest of the client.
In counseling it is important to address biblical values. The fundamental concepts of psychology are based on the bible. I intend to use the biblical values in counseling children. The kids will be able to learn Christian virtues while still at a tender age. To interpret the bible requires spiritual insight from God. Bad interpretation of the bible may lead to imposing wrong values to the children. Use of the bible to counsel children will require the help of theologians to interpret the bible.
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