How to Interview a Child Therapist
Interviewing a child therapist is a significant undertaking that can have serious repercussions for the entire family. If a parent or a legal authority decides that a child requires therapy, the particular therapist can transform a child's problem into a recipe for emotional growth, or make things worse. A therapist who quickly recommends medication is not getting to the root of the problem. A therapist who involves the child's siblings, parents, teachers and influences (such as a coach or best friend) is using a holistic approach that is likely to help the child through their issues.
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Instructions
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Check your health insurance policy to see if it covers mental health providers. It may help you cover the cost, but only the cost of therapists with certain licenses. The insurance company may also be able to provide you with a list of qualified therapists you can begin contacting to see if they are the right ones for your needs. Clarify with your insurance carrier if a certain number of sessions are covered or find out the limitations of coverage.
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Contact a few child therapists so you can get a variety of opinions and be able to select the one that seems the most effective. Ask what licenses they have. For example, find out if they are a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW), Marriage, Family and Child Therapist (MFTC) and/or certified social worker (ACSW). These designations will show that the person will most likely have a master's degree and at least two years supervised experience. They should have also passed a state exam.
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Clarify to yourself why your child may need a therapist. Is she acting strangely in school, has his grades suddenly fell, did she recently undergo a trauma such as the death of a parent? The more research you perform before the interview, the more effective your questions will be. For example, if you become familiar with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), you can explain to the therapist what happened to the child, what behaviors she is exhibiting and why she may be suffering from PTSD. If you are familiar with various therapies for this disease, you can ask specific questions about what predominant theoretical orientation and favored methods of treatment the therapist employs.
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Prepare a list of questions you would like the child therapist to answer such as cost, estimated length of treatment and previous similar cases the therapist treated successfully. Bring the child with you to see how they interact. Sometimes children take an immediate liking to an adult, other times, they may dislike them and refuse to talk. The more comfortable the child is with the therapist, the more open and honest they are likely to be.
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Compare the answers you receive with each therapist you see. If the second therapist brings up a problem with something the first therapist said, see if you can call or email the first therapist with a follow-up question. For example, one therapist may say that sessions ought to last two hours. Another therapist may say that children lose focus after 45 minutes, and further work and questions after this time is ineffective. Ask the first therapist if children are just as focused in the first hour as the second. Tell her that one therapist mentioned that sessions ought to be less than one hour and ask what her opinion is about that.
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References
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