Parent Involvement in Therapy

Why is it important to involve parents and caregivers in child psychology appointments?

Parents play a central role in child therapy and parent participation in therapy can be important for therapeutic outcomes. Given that children are embedded within the family system, an important part of work with children is also working with parents. The level of parental involvement would be dependent of the age and stage of the child’s development and can be flexible to meet the individual needs and goals of the child and the family.

Engagement

Parent participation in child therapy is particularly important given the role that parents and caregivers play in facilitating engagement and attendance in psychological therapy appointments.

Shared Understanding and Collaboration

Parents can provide valuable insights into the child’s behaviour, emotions, development, and environment. Involving parents in therapy sessions provides parents with a safe and supportive therapeutic space to explore their concerns and seek parental support and guidance. While the psychologist will collaboratively establish a shared understanding of your child’s presenting concerns and formulate a therapy plan, your involvement as a parent will be crucial to carry this plan out.

Generalisation

Parents are often in the best position to teach and reinforce therapeutic skills, strategies, and appropriate responses, and as such, it is important that parents are aware of therapeutic activities and strategies discussed with the child.

Feedback

You can also provide valuable feedback to the psychologist about your observations of how your child is doing between sessions and how strategies are being implemented outside of the therapy sessions.

Parental Support

Your child’s psychologist may work directly with you to help you understand your child’s behaviour, emotions or development. Parents play a central role in fostering emotional development in children. The psychologist may focus on the parent-child attachment relationship in supporting you respond to and attune to your child’s needs or provide parent emotion coaching to support you respond to your child’s big feelings. Therapy sessions may address parent-child communication, support parents with boundary setting or focus on improving communication and connection within the family.

When you are involved in your child’s therapy, it can help your child feel more supported and comfortable in the therapeutic process and help with therapeutic changes in the short term and longer term.

If you would like to find out more about the benefits of your involvement in your child’s therapy or to discuss ways Clincians at Prosper Health Collective will involve parents and structure appointments for children and families, please contact us on (08) 6381 0071.