So you want your child to go to therapy. You’re likely seeing something within them that concerns you, and you want to offer them a safe space to express their emotions, process life experiences, and hopefully learn some new coping skills. Art therapy is a great place for that! We at Spotted Rabbit want you to know what to expect.
Confidentiality
Confidentiality in therapy essentially means that anything talked about in session stays in session. The only thing that would break confidentiality is if the child is suicidal, homicidal, or the victim of abuse. As therapists, we are trained to identify and assess these factors and are mandated reporters. If your child discloses anything that places them at risk physically or emotionally please trust that we will involve you in getting them increased care and keeping them safe.
At Spotted Rabbit, we aim to teach and advocate for your kiddos to communicate effectively with you, their peers, and anyone else they may meet throughout daily life. Therapists reporting on behalf of your child doesn’t give them the opportunity to learn and practice needed communication and problem solving skills to resolve conflict and express emotions in a healthy manner. It can also greatly damage the therapeutic relationship by breaking trust and reducing confidence that the therapist is there to support them.
We are happy to give you a general overview of the progress being made in the session, such as themes that are manifesting and skills we’re practicing! However, we cannot speak about what is specifically said, or not said in the session if it doesn’t represent a safety concern.
Therapeutic Relationship
The first goal in therapy, especially with youth, is developing a therapeutic relationship. This involves building trust, developing a mutual or common understanding with one another, and affirming that our office is a judgment-free zone. This takes time! For adults, a therapeutic relationship typically takes about 6 months to build. For kids, particularly teenagers, this can take significantly longer. Adults generally have a more established understanding of who they are and what they want, and have often made the choice themselves to seek therapy which makes it easier to open up quickly with a therapist.
Kids, on the other hand, are still figuring out their identity, desires, and life goals, which can make it difficult to answer questions about their feelings and their personal values. Sometimes, they truly don’t know yet! Additionally, most adults that youth encounter represent authority figures, thus opening up to a new adult can be scary and stressful for them. Just because your child may know we are a safe person to open up to, doesn’t mean their nervous system trusts that we are.
We find that it can take weeks to months for your child to start opening up in therapy. Even longer for those with autism or a history of trauma. Therefore, this reinforces the need to take extra time and care to establish trust and ensure your child feels we are someone who is there to listen and help.
Parent-Therapist Communication
Despite needing confidentiality to build a working relationship, kids can’t change completely on their own. When a youth is struggling it is often a combination of biological and environmental factors with family dynamics playing a large role in how kids interact with parents and siblings, and cope with intense negative emotions like anger and frustration.
At Spotted Rabbit we welcome private communication with parents through email, text, phone calls, or a session without the client present. Children are especially sensitive to messages that suggest they are somehow broken and in need of fixing. Just asking that your child come to therapy in the first place suggests to them that there’s something about them that needs to change and so we believe it’s extremely important to counter these messages and for the child to view situations and interaction as dysfunctional, not themselves personally. The best way to do this is to avoid talking about the child and their behavior in front of them, unless the child is also involved in the conversation.
As highlighted earlier, we also want your child to build the skills they need to function at their best. When we make plans with your child to practice coping skills outside of therapy, we encourage the client to invite you into the session to share this information with you directly and discuss together how they would like you to help them. We will also encourage your child to invite you into session to address any conflicts or big emotions they may be experiencing as this allows them to have the therapist present to support them as they initiate difficult conversations with you.
Progress
Change or progress is going to present differently for each child. As adults, we have the resources to make changes to our routines, and build habits that better reflect the practice of developing successful coping skills or living a more authentic lifestyle. And as I’m sure you know, wanting to make changes doesn’t always mean we do. There’s a lot going on that influences behavior, especially one that might be meeting a need, like in the case of tantrums, arguing with family, or refusing to go to school.
Children and adolescents typically have an inflexible routine, as they attend school with little say on the order of their classes, when they can eat lunch, use the restroom, or lay their head down for a brief break. Many times, the work that we’re doing in session will be discussing and practicing coping skills until the right opportunity arises for them to put it into practice. Part of what makes the therapeutic process work well is allowing your child space to feel that this process is theirs so they gain the confidence to figure out what supports and resources they need to be successful in life and resolve the issues that brought them to therapy in the first place.
Motivation
Motivation impacts everything that we do in therapy. Nearly all adults attending therapy do so because they recognize a problem that they want to have changed, and seek our support in achieving it. If someone attends therapy who doesn’t want to participate, or for whatever reason can’t see that change could be beneficial, there’s very little that we as therapists can do to “prove” it. Any change, if it is to be sustainable and successful, has to come from an internal desire to have it be done.
It doesn’t mean therapy can’t help, but rather it may take more time for clients to buy into the therapeutic process. This is especially true with neurodivergent clients or those who don’t feel they have much control over their lives.
Overall, art therapy is about the process, not the product, and sometimes that process takes longer than might be expected. Progress isn’t always linear, sometimes a client can take 3 steps forward and 1 step back, or sideways. This is all okay, and expected. In these moments of perceived regression or lack of progress, we will use this to help us brainstorm newer, more effective ways to do the things we want to do!
If you’re interested in learning more about what is considered developmentally appropriate behavior, please visit the resources listed below:
American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry: Facts For Families Guide
Child Mind Institute: Family Resource Center
Simply Psychology: Erik Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development
The Center for Parenting Education: Child Development by Age
Ciera LaCount, LCAT-P is working under a limited permit for creative arts therapy in New York State and is under supervision. They have a MS in creative arts therapy from Nazareth College and have been practicing art-based psychotherapy since 2023. They currently see clients at Spotted Rabbit’s Pittsford, NY studio.
Ciera specializes in LGBTQIA+ issues and gender affirming care, neurodivergence, anxiety/depression, and complex trauma. They work with children (ages 6+), teens and adults.