1. Giving examples, discuss the do’s and don’ts in counselling/therapy involving a child or adolescent.

2. Discuss the salience of ‘‘joining’’ in the context of child therapy.

Counsellor first needs to establish a relationship with the child which is called joining.

• It is a key component of child therapy. 
• Joining allows the therapist to better understand the child’s world. 
• This is essential because it allows the therapist to build trust and rapport with the child, which makes the child more likely to open up and share their thoughts and feelings.
• Therapists who join with children are able to provide a safe, non-judgmental space, which can help the child feel more comfortable and understood.
• Methods for ‘joining’ depend on the age of the child and are very different from methods used with adults. Example: for a child under 5 years of age, this may involve getting on the floor to play a game. Up to seven years of age the child shows little appreciation of other’s feelings and it might be difficult to develop adequate therapeutic alliance with the child.

3. Suppose a child, identified as very aggressive, has been brought to you for therapy. Analyse the implications of developmental abilities of the child for your choice of therapeutic method to be employed.

Changing socio-cognitive capacities of the children and adolescents demand specific therapeutic approaches.

• The very young child cannot enter any therapeutic approach which demands self-reflection and evaluation.
• Young children do not have capacity to understand cognitive process.
• The child at this stage learns through repeated, active, experimental process and guiding attachment relationship.
• The commonest forms of intervention at this stage are indirect and likely to include elements of developmental counselling and advice on parental management of difficulty.
• If the child trusts and obeys the therapist, then via the process of modelling, skill rehearsal, active desensitization and training in relaxation skills can be carried out in children of four years of age.
• For cognitive behavioural therapies the features of development begin to appear in late middle childhood.
• Higher level CBT such as interpersonal problem-solving approaches can be carried out in children 8 to 12 years of age.
• Cognitive restructuring techniques are unlikely to be evident before pre-adolescence and are more likely to be reliable in late adolescent years.

Goals and methods of therapy should be decided considering the child’s developmental competence and ability.