has anyone had psychotherapy for their child?

[bambi06]

my ds aged 6 has been increasingly controlling over his whole life[asd] and tries to control everything and is anxious about a lot of things and major meltdowns frequently[everyday] we`ve been advised by cahms iter 3 he needs psychotherapy asap to help him overcome a lot of problems plus in order to be able to function in society as he gets older as there is a strong possibility of acd as he gets older so weve found our [private ]therapist through camhs and will be starting therapy next week [ hope to god it works ..desperate measures and costs here] and just wondereing if anyone else has gone down the same trck and has it helped?

[jenk1]

our DS has had 8/9 sessions with a behaviour psychologist this year(dont know if this is the same as what you mean).

It has been really good, it has taught us to manage him better and understand him as well he too is ASD.

I would recommend it for anyone

HTH

[Davros]

I wouldn't go near a Psychotherapist I'm afraid. Psychologist far better imo.

[bambi06]

weve seeen a psychologist already and theyve said he needs psychotherapy. jenk1 can you tell me what it entails as it sounds sort of similar but there are so many therapies/names out there it gets a bit confusing but we`ve also been told that behaviour management will help US rather than the child , do you get the sessions as parents rather than you r son as to how to cope with the behaviour?

[dobbin]

At his age I'd agree with Davros and go for a psychologist. Not sure what your psychologist tried but cognitive behavioural therapy can be extremely effective for the problems you describe, as long as your son's language skills are up to it. If they're not then I'd give psychotherapy a wide berth for sure.

[bambi06]

why is everyone saying dont touch psychotherapy?.. the psychotherapist we ve chosen is also a psychologist and uses lots of arts/crafts/drama etc in her play and is very childcentred as she only works st the childs level and doesnt push it in other directions of play that theyre not ready for yet..she also works in a school with children with behaviour problems so seems to know what to expect..and yes my son `s language is very good but i just wonder why no one else agrees with a pyschotherapist..what do they do thats so awful!!?

[jenk1]

hello bambi, when ds saw the clinical child psychologist first this year he saw 2 of them.

After the first session lasting approx 1 and a half hours they were mentioning AS/ASD.

He then had a further 8/9 sessions with one of the psychologists, sometimes me and dh were present and we all talked thru what we saw as our problems and it helped us to work through them.

Me and DH had 2 sessions on our own with both of the psychologists, beforehand we were asked to keep a diary of DS when he was having meltdowns and what was going on etc, some of the time it was me and DH not agreeing to the same thing that was causing DS anxiety so you are right that they did help us as the parents BUT helping us in effect helped DS who is calmer and better now for me and DH having help from the psychologists, i dont know much about psychotherapy but others do and if they say its a waste of time then i personally hava taken a lot on board of what advice ive been given and its only ever been right, BUT thats only my opinion and you are entitled to try anything as a parent that you feel could work for you.

Let us know how you go on with the psychotherapy as i would be very interested to hear

HTH

[bambi06]

but i`ve had sessions with the psychologists and she said basically we were doing what we ought to be doing to minimise the stress for him[and us] but it came to a natural end when she agreed she couldnt help us any further which was where the psychotherapy comes in...

[dobbin]

Saying no to psychotherapy was a bit of a knee-jerk reaction. I have canvassed some friends and perhaps I was a little harsh. My reasons against it are that I have only come across it being used with children with behavioural issues in the context of neurodevelopmental disorders, such as asd or adhd. In these cases I felt it was inappropriate to treat the children as if their problems could somehow be reasoned out of them or that, for example, an asd child might find social situations difficult purely because of their previous experiences. Cognitive behavioural therapy is more solution orientated and uses past experiences as examples of situations that can be managed better but not as the reason for on-going difficulties. Sorry, a bit waffly. There are many situations where psychotherapy can be helpful but with asd children I think cbt has the edge because it can enable children to change and control their behaviour even when they do not have that much insight into their behaviour, anxieties etc.

[Davros]

My "issue" with psychotherapy as an intervention FOR THE CHILD is that it tends to focus on feelings and how someone's environment, background and earlier childhood makes them feel and how that has affected them and then manifests itself. First, this seems completely irrelevant with young children with ASD who are non-verbal but it also implies that autism and/or other difficulties are due to the child's upbringing and treatment by their parents - this is going way back to the Refrigerator Mother theory of Bruno Bettelheim which has been totally discredited. I've attended several conferences at The Tavistock relating to ASD and whatever they try to present, they can't get away from this. Personally I think it could be quite damaging to vulnerable parents. I've got nothing against family therapy and parents thinking about and finding out how they feel about having a child with a disability or more able children/individuals learning about how they feel about their disability and how it affects them. But that is very different to an intervention focusing on the autism. I don't know WHO is saying that behavioural methods would benefit the parents and not the child, utter twaddle. I recently attended the NAS International COnference and it is very widely accepted that behavioural methods help THE CHILD as it shows them, teaches them other ways to behave and learn to enjoy engaging and developing. Go to the NAS website and look for the papers from the Conference, its all there and from many sources.

[bambi06]

i will ask our psychotherapist whether she does cognitive behaviour therapy.

[Davros]

I didn't mean my last post to sound so ranty
Something that I DID find helpful and is a form of psychotherapy is Music Therapy. I never expected it to deliver some form of "breakthrough" so I think I was quite realistic about it. What I did find was that, by communicating with music, my non-verbal DS could participate. It also helped ME think about his emotional side and how I felt about him. His therapists were great. We had a review every term where they showed me relevant video and we discussed our views of what was happening and why. Interestingly they very often came up with the SAME things as our behaviour therapists and even similar interpretations! I found it useful to have regular input from a different perspective. We went for about 2 years when it became too difficult because of DS starting school so we left feeling that we had got enough out of it and it was time to move on. It could be quite repetitive so a couple of years is probably enough.

[bambi06]

my ds is verbal though ...VERY and we hope to try everything that will help him to be able to express his emotions as often he will have a meltdown and say hes scared but he says he doesnt know why or he will get angry with someone[ within the home] but cant say why.. we did think of music therapy but can only afford so much plus hes done drumming from an early age and he thoroughly enjoys music so it might be a future possibility

[Heathcliffscathy]

a psychologist is someone that is trained to study the mind and behaviour thought patterns in their chosen specialism (for eg children). a counselling psychologist is someone that had done further training (identical training in fact to those that are accredited psychotherapists) to enable them to practise psychotherapy.

dismissing psychotherapy out of hand based either on obsolete theory such as bettelheim's (sp) or prejudice is like dismissing all western medicine, or all dentists. there are crap ones and good ones. there are ones that are trained as child psychotherapists (a totally different specialism to generic psychotherapy) and those that are not.

cognitive behavioural therapy has a v good reputation as it is used extensively by the NHS due to the fact that it is brief and therefore cheaper that many other forms of longer term therapy. it works for some conditions but is next to useless for others and in many cases simply symptom shifts.

[bambi06]

so what do they actually do in cognitive therapy please ...i`m confused

[bambi06]

so what do they actually do in cognitive therapy please ...i`m confused

[Davros]

Sophable, I don't think I did dismiss psychotherapy out of hand:
"I've got nothing against family therapy and parents thinking about and finding out how they feel about having a child with a disability or more able children/individuals learning about how they feel about their disability and how it affects them."
And from what Bambio says about her DS it may well be relevant for him. But I do think it MUST be approached with great caution and care when it comes to trying to work with someone with ASD and/or any other Learning Disability which is not there because of some emotional disturbance or the way they have been brought up.