How To Prepare For A Family Counseling
Are you experiencing conflict in the family?
Working with a family counselor can be wonderful and supportive. You can use the time with your counselor to work on improving relationships in the family and developing coping skills.
4 Ways To Prepare For Family Counseling
1. Show up to the counseling session with an open mind. This means that you are willing to listen to what the counselor has to say.
You can do this by writing down questions that you have before the counseling and allowing there to be space to receive feedback on the question. In addition to the feedback, you can gather the information and find time to practice it. The ability to practice the feedback that the counselor provides can show your willingness to be open-minded.
2. Focus on the positives and negatives.
When you show up for the first session try to tell the counselor a mixture of the ups and downs.
A wonderful way to prepare for family counseling is to have a ready-to-go list of items that you can share about your child. The list should include a mixture of strengths and areas of improvement.
What you want to avoid is showing up in a counseling session and using it as a space to only talk about the negatives of your child. This will typically make them feel targeted, less than, and constantly reminded of areas in their life they are not good at.
My encouragement is that during the family counseling session you do your best to share your child’s strengths and leverage their strengths as ways that can improve the areas of weakness.
3. Take time to give your child time to get to know the counselor before the first session.
You can do this by letting your child see a picture of the counselor, giving them a call to have a phone consultation, or watching a video that showcases the counselor. This way your child builds comfort.
Before showing up for a counseling session, I always find it helpful for clients to get to know the counselor to some degree. You can do this by performing research on the counselor you want to schedule a family counseling session. Try to find pictures, and videos, and if possible, schedule a phone call.
4. During the session give your child time to share their story.
It’s important that the parent and the child each are able to talk about what is taking place.
As a counselor, I can literally see a clear difference between families that hold space for each person to share their thoughts, feelings, and story. This can be done by giving your child space during the session to talk about thoughts and feelings.
Our counseling office is located near Guilford College and the Quaker Village Shopping Center in Greensboro, North Carolina. We also provide teletherapy or online counseling.
