5 Tips to Help Prepare your Child/Teen to Start Therapy

One of the most common challenges parents talk with me about is not necessarily recognizing that their child or teen might benefit from therapy, but how to talk with the child or teen about attending therapy. In our current culture it is so common for kids to feel that they are being told there is something wrong with them or that they are crazy when they are told they are going to go to therapy. Luckily, there are definitely some things that parents can do to help ease this process and prepare their child.

Here are my top 5 ideas!

1. Make sure that you talk about therapy as a positive thing, not a consequence or negative experience that you have to endure to feel better.
2. Discuss with your child your own experience attending therapy if you have attended. Share with them how nice it was to have someone who was there just to help you and who you could share your deepest feelings with.
3. Explain to your child or teen that you do not think anything is wrong with them or that they have a problem, just that you think it might help to have added support. Often, acknowledging that life can be difficult and challenging for all of us and that this is why we go to therapy can help them feel less alone.
4. Make sure you screen the therapist to see if you think it will be a good fit. At Thrive, we always have a parent intake session before the child’s session just to be sure that the parents believe that we are someone their child can trust and develop a relationship with. Remember, you know your child best and likely have a good idea of what adults they will relate to best!
5. If your child or teen is particularly reluctant to attend, make sure you do two things. One, let the therapist know so that they can be particularly supportive and gentle in getting to know your child. Two, try to add in some incentive to attending therapy like going to get a treat or a dinner together after session. Hopefully this will make the experience more enjoyable.

I hope this helps give you ideas about ways you might talk with your child or teen about therapy. As a sneak peak of next week’s blog, another way parents can make therapy more successful is by not putting pressure on therapy. Letting their child or teen work through things with the therapist without a lot of pressure to “get better” or “fix the problem” helps your child adjust to therapy and can help therapy to be more successful!