Teletherapy with Kids and Teens

Teletherapy with Kids and Teens

If you are a therapist, counselor or clinician, chances are high that you have had to do some sort of teletherapy since COVID-19 hit. Many of us muddled through (and some of us still are now), but one thing is for certain...services had to go on and we were all up for the challenge. Oh, yes!

Check out a dramatization of what my first few teletherapy sessions had to look like from my client's perspective. Some may even look like this now, from time to time:

A Steep Learning Curve

Over the course of the past few months, I've worked hard to hone the skills to work more effectively and in more meaningful ways with kids and teens online. Those meager beginnings gave way to new discoveries and ideas on how to be more creative with my young charges, even from a distance. And it's been challenging...and FUN! (And it's also been a lot of late nights and weekends, spent working around office hours, to try to educate myself, then create the resources to use online.) It took some re-imagining and ingenuity to come up with some plans to address the challenges inherent in doing online therapy with youngsters.  

From exchanges with many clinicians, I know have not been alone in the struggle to make it all work. I know some of my colleagues are still struggling. It is a very steep learning curve, indeed, to make it all come together. But we can do this...and do it well!

Working with Kids and Teens Poses its Own Set of Challenges

As if the technical end of things isn't tough enough, when you add in working with kids and teens, things get even more interesting. How do you keep their interest? What do you say after you say you check in for a weekly update? How do you keep them in front of the screen long enough to engage, before they go bopping off to do something else? How can you engage creatively when you can't be in the same room? What do you do with a barely verbal teenager? The questions go on and on.

It's Almost Ready for Release!

Our teletherapy mini-training is almost ready for release. Stay tuned and check back Thursday evening, when we release it! We'll give you a sneak peek inside the program when the doors open for the training, as well! If you aren't on our email list, be sure to sign-up by clicking the link below. You'll also get all of our free printables. We'll be sending out notification when the program goes live. 

Be well,

Wendy Young, LMSW, BCD, is  the founder of Kidlutions and co-author of BLOOM: 50 Things to Say, Think and Do with Anxious, Angry and Over-the-Top Kids, co-creator of BLOOM Brainsmarts, and creator of The Joyful Parent. She is the author of numerous workbooks and resources to help from the preschool through the teen years. 

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