This video will show you a live counselling interview technique with a boy ,John, who is 15 years old and lives in an institution.
The aim of the whole assessment and counselling process is to determine a viable treatment plan that has the best interest of the child as the core value.

From the contributions of the child and all the involved and affected systems, the practitioner will be able to come up with a treatment plan for the reunification and reintegration of the child back into his community.

From the different counselling sessions, you will see how the practitioner explores with the child the presenting problems, how life-events have affected him and the systems that he is related to.

The practitioner also takes him back to his past when problems where not there with the intention of tying the found resources and coping mechanisms for structural changes of a possible better future.

By using the supportive tool, puppets representing human beings, John, is able to see his problems from an multi-perspective view. This enables the practitioner have a better insight and understanding of the complexity of John’s situation in the broader context and the dynamics of the relationships.

Through a solution- focused approach, the practitioner engages the child on his needs and wishes and the steps that need to be undertaken to achieve this.

When you start watching the different topics that are related to one another, you can read and hear the theoretical concepts that the practitioner uses and with what intention.

INTRODUCTION

To create a report with children who have undergone traumatic life experiences and there for less trusting of the world around them, requires patience and time. The practitioner needs to have the ability of reaching out to the child in order to make the child feel safe and win the child’s trust.

This video will show one way of how a practitioner creates a report with the child to make him feel at ease, safe and confident by explicitly engaging the child and having the child feel responsible for his own needs and wishes.

The practitioner’s role is to facilitate the child to open up and guide him by exploring together the presenting problems and mentioning to him the importance of his role in finding solutions and being part of the decision making .

This video will take you through the possible steps on how to engage the child, in this instance, John, and come up with solutions to solve unfavorable situations he finds himself in.

INTRODUCTION

Children who have undergone many life-events that has led to them living for long periods of time without their daily structured routine, often do not know what to expect from the counselling sessions.

It is important for the practitioner to take the child through what can be expected from the counselling sessions, as this will help both, the child and the practitioner, manage expectations that could otherwise overwhelm the child.

It also helps if the practitioner stays on track with the realistic goals of each session, and follows-up each session by reflecting on what has been achieved.

INTRODUCTION

In the video you will be taken through a nonverbal child friendly communication tool called, puppets. This tool makes it easy for a child to open up without fear or language restriction and picture his true life story through the setup on the table.

By identifying the puppets that represent, not only the child, but all the family members that the child is related to, up to the third generation, enables the child have an emotional distance from the circumstances that have so affected his life.

The aim of having this puppet setup, is for the practitioner to explore, with the child, the root causes of the problems and unresolved issues that could have been inherited from the past.

The practitioner needs carefully explain the tool  enable the child understand that through puppet manipulation he is better able to express the impact of the life-events that have taken place. The child will have a better insight and overview of the problems that are related and have been affected by other systems around him.

In this video, the practitioner highlights that families are systems of interconnected and interdependent individuals, none of whom can be understood in isolation. In interrelationships, each part affects the other both positively and negatively. By engaging all the involved systems around the child, the practitioner and the child will have a better insight and understanding of the causes and effects of the problems that have affected the child.

John is invited to set-up his nuclear family situation before life-events presented themselves in the child’s life.
This will enable the practitioner to have a better insight of how life was before.

Through the puppets, the practitioner then explores the effects and impact the life-events had on him, the family and how every family member coped with the different situations.
The practitioner using different techniques of questioning-like circular and solution focused questions- , in order to get a clear picture of the dynamics in the relationships, the communication patterns, coping mechanisms and resources from John’s perspective.

The power of the setup up of the various situations with the puppets gives the practitioner and the child a clear, sometimes very confrontational view of what has taken place.

MULTI-PERSPECTIVE VIEW OF THE DIFFERENT SYSTEMS AROUND THE CHILD

Every person has his own personality, characteristics, roots, beliefs, values, norms and experiences. And in any given situation, people come with their own views, opinions and ideas, of looking at a problem from their own perspective.
The practitioner task is to use the different views and opinions by engaging the involved and affected systems around the child to create a complete picture of the presenting issues which leads to recognition and understanding which can result in reframing the misbehavior of the child.

INTRODUCTION

In this video, the practitioner wants to explore with the child his school life and if, and in what sense the home situation has affected him at school concerning his schoolwork, performances, relationships with teachers and friends. The child will be asked about his social networks to find out more about the meaning of friendship and if the friendship is mutual and accountable.
The child will discover from multi-perspective view that the people around him have different, opinions, views and beliefs about his changing behaviors.
The practitioner takes John back to his former good life at school. He will explore with John’ the underlying meaning of his changing behaviour in school, the consequences and what it has led to.

The practitioner, not only looks for the effect of what the street-life meant but also the child’s coping mechanisms and resources.

You have watched parts of different counselling sessions where the practitioner explored with the child how life-events have affected him and the systems he is related to.

This video shows how the practitioner engages the child by exploring with a solution focused approach, the steps needed to reconnect the child and his family.

Involving the child by seeking ways to come with solutions, he not only makes the child part of the decision making to reunite with his family, but also lays the grounds for the whole reintegration process that brings the child back into the community.

The whole counselling process of the child’s assessment leads to finding treatment guidelines for the child, family and the community.The practitioner will identify and tie the found resources and coping mechanisms from the child’s assessment as guidelines to come up with strengthening interventions to rebuild on the child’s self-esteem; empower the family in their contribution in finding solutions to their problems and involve the wider community as resources.