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CHILD PSYCHOTHERAPY
A presentation for EPC 451 – Introduction to Counseling
By Naomi Esparza, Karla Tovar, & Anne Zachry
Fall 2011 Semester – Prof. Steve Scheff, PhD
All content copyright © 2011, Naomi Esparza, Karla Tovar, & Anne Zachry. Al rights reserved.
PSYCHOTHERAPY DEFINED
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Psychotherapy is defined by the American
Psychological Association as:
“Any of a group of therapies, used to treat psychological
disorders, that focus on changing faulty behaviors,
thoughts, perceptions, and emotions that may be
associated with specific disorders.”
TYPES OF PSYCHOTHERAPY
 Individual
 Family
 Group
TYPES OF PSYCHOTHERAPY USEFUL WITH CHILDREN
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Art therapy: The therapeutic use of art
making with the assistance of a
professional by people who experience
illness or challenges in living.
Poetry therapy: Involves the use of the
language arts in therapeutic capacities to
express and explore thoughts and
behaviors.
Narrative therapy: Clients are guided to
interpret their contextual struggles. The
narrative therapist is a collaborator with
the client in the process of developing
richer narratives of their experiences of life.
TYPES OF PSYCHOTHERAPY USEFUL WITH CHILDREN
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Talk therapy: Psychotherapy
emphasizing conversation between
therapist and patient
Play therapy:
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Clinical Definition: Play therapy is the
systematic use of a theoretical model to establish
an interpersonal process wherein trained play
therapists use the therapeutic powers of play to
help clients prevent or resolve psychosocial
difficulties and achieve optimal growth and
development.
Public Definition: Play therapy is a form of
counseling (or psychotherapy) by which licensed
mental health professionals use play-based models
and techniques to better communicate with and
help clients, especially children, achieve optimal
mental health.
Music therapy: The treatment of mental
disability by means of music
TYPES OF PSYCHOTHERAPY USEFUL WITH CHILDREN
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Animal Therapy: Using
interactions with trained animals to
encourage emotional attachments in a
rejection-free context, improve the
client’s ability to bond to others, and
elicit emotional dialog
Sport Therapy: Using athletic
activities for individual or group
therapy
Regression Therapy & Hypnosis:
Therapy in which the patient is
encouraged to or aided in addressing
unresolved issues of the past
CHILD DEVELOPMENT THEORY
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Understanding how children are supposed to develop is important to
delivering appropriate psychotherapy.
Theories:
 Piaget’s Theory of Intellectual Development
 Erickson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development
 Behaviorism
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Classical Conditioning
Operant Conditioning
Connections with Applied Behavioral Analysis
Bandura’s Theory of Cognitive Social Learning
 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
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PIAGET’S STAGES OF
INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT
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Piaget’s main tenet: The child actively seeks
knowledge.
Believed that all children were biologically
“hardwired” to progress through developmental
stages in a particular order
Sensorimotor (ages 0 – 2): The child’s thought is limited to
action schemes and sensory experiences
 Preoperational (ages 2 – 7): The child begins to use
symbols to represent objects and experiences and to use
language symbolically
 Concrete operations (ages 7 – 12): The child is capable of
logical reasoning limited to physically real and present
objects
 Formal operations (ages 12+): The child acquires flexibility
in thinking as well as the capacities for abstract thinking
and mental hypothesis testing
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ERICKSON’S THEORY OF
PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
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Believed that children passed through set developmental stages in which they had to
master a particular psycho-social concept or their development was negatively impacted:
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Infancy – Trust vs. Mistrust
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Early Childhood – Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt
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Task: To achieve intimacy with others.
Risk: Shaky identity may lead to avoidance of others and isolation.
Adulthood – Generativity vs. Stagnation
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Task: To achieve a sense of identity.
Risk: Role confusion over who and what the individual wants to be.
Young Adulthood – Intimacy vs. Isolation
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Task: To develop industry.
Risk: Feelings of inferiority over real or imagined failure to master tasks.
Adolescence – Identity vs. Role Confusion
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Task: To develop initiative in mastering environment.
Risk: Feelings of guilt over aggressiveness and daring.
School Age – Industry vs. Inferiority
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Task: To learn self-control and establish autonomy.
Risk: Shame and doubt about one’s own capabilities.
Play Age – Initiative vs. Guilt
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Task: To develop basic trust in oneself and others.
Risk: Mistrust of others and lack of self-confidence.
Task: To express oneself through generativity.
Risk: Inability to create children, ideas, or products may lead to stagnation.
Mature Age – Integrity vs. Despair
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Task: To achieve a sense of integrity.
Risk: Doubts and unfulfilled desires may lead to dispair.
BEHAVIORISM
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Primary theorists:
Ivan Pavlov
 B.F. Skinner
 John B. Watson
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Looked purely at what behaviors could be observed to
study human development
Classical conditioning – pairing an unrelated stimuli with
a stimuli known to produce a particular response (bell
ringing becomes associated with lunchtime)
 Operant conditioning – reinforcing desired behaviors and
ignoring or punishing undesired behaviors
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Applied Behavioral Analysis (“ABA”)
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Reinforcing appropriate behavior is a form of operant
conditioning
BANDURA’S SOCIAL
COGNITIVE THEORY
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Believes that children learn not only through
classical and operant conditioning, but also by
observing and imitating others.
Children do not imitate the behaviors of others
blindly or automatically; rather, they select specific
behaviors to imitate & their imitation relies on how
they process this information.
 Four cognitive processes govern how well a child will
learn a new behavior by observing another person:
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The child must attend to the model’s behavior.
 The child must retain the observed behaviors in memory.
 The child must have the capacity, physically &
intellectually to reproduce the observed behavior.
 The child must be motivated to reproduce the behavior.
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MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS
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Abraham Maslow developed a hierarchy reflecting the needs of the “whole person.”
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These growth needs are needs in intellectual achievement and aesthetic appreciation
that increase as people have experiences with them.
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Believed that if lower-level needs were not met then the individual could not
progress to pursue higher-level needs.
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The bottom part of the pyramid is know as the deficiency needs section and the top
pat is the growth needs.
The bottom layer of the
pyramid is known as
Physiological Needs, often
better known as Survival
Needs: shelter, warmth,
food, and water.
Next we have Safety needs:
freedom from physical or
emotional threat.
Next we have the need for
belonging: love and
acceptance from family and
peers.
Then we have the selfesteem needs: recognition
and approval.
CASE STUDIES: GENIE
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Feral child found in 1970 at age 13 after having
been physically restrained most of her life; still
in diapers and without language.
Father was mentally ill and abused entire
family.
Mother was severely visually impaired from
injuries sustained from physical abuse in
childhood and her marriage.
Couple’s first child died of neglect at 2 months.
Father thought he was keeping Genie “safe” by
keeping her restrained.
Strapped her to a potty chair all day and into a
homemade straight jacket at night; punished
for making any kind of noise.
Regressed in foster care and remains in a group
home setting to this day.
Lack of adequate sensory stimulation caused
her brain to fail to develop – induced
developmental delay.
CASE STUDIES: DANIEL
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The first 7 years of his life were spent in a Romanian orphanage with another child in a shared crib.
The only time he would step out of his crib would be to eat and go to the bathroom; he never established a
bond with any adult during that time.
When he was 7½, he was adopted by Heidi and Rick Solomon who lived in Ohio. The first couple of months
after the adoption had difficult moments but there was progress.
When he turned 8 years old, it was the first time he ever celebrated his birthday.
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He began to think about his birth and became very confused.
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He could not differentiate his adoptive parents from his biological parents and believed that his
adoptive parents were the ones that left him at the orphanage.
He began to gain a deep hatred for his adoptive parents even after they explained to him the difference.
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8 hour tantrums
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Destroyed everything in his room
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Strangled a puppy
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Talked often about suicide
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His mother had to hire a bodyguard for protection from his assaultive behaviors
Several psychotropic medications were prescribed for Daniel, but some were useless.
Responded to somewhat controversial form of psychotherapy in which he had to engage in infantile bonding
behaviors with his parents in order to form proper attachments.
CASE STUDY: LEIGH
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A four-year-old female child, Leigh, was brought to therapy in
December, 1991, presenting with nightmares, complaints of ear
aches during sleep, and clinging behavior.
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Therapist worked with her for one year during which she diagnosed
four separate personalities through play therapy:
 Leigh: aggressive and angry behavior
 Melissa: passive and mellow behavior
 2 year old: thumb sucking, scared, quiet, hiding behind the
parent, and wanting books to be read to her.
 Wall Builder: abused child, recalling someone asking her to put
her pants down.
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Father became ill with depression and was taken to hospital where
he was diagnosed with multiple personality disorder, now known as
dissociative identity disorder.
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This is when Leigh stopped going to therapy and soon after that the
therapist lost contact with her.
THANK YOU!
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View this presentation & related links online at
http://annezachryonlearning.wordpress.com/?p=112