Counselling Children: A Practical Introduction by Kathryn Geldard & David Geldard & Rebecca Yin Foo

Author:Kathryn Geldard & David Geldard & Rebecca Yin Foo [Geldard, Kathryn]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9781446289785
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Published: 2013-04-25T04:00:00+00:00

The ‘monster-in-me’ strategy

Kathryn will explain how she uses the ‘monster-in-me’ process, which adopts a Cognitive Behaviour Therapy approach to help the child recognize that they have the ability to control their behaviour instead of letting their behaviour control them. This is done in conjunction with the Narrative Therapy idea of ‘externalizing the problem’.

What I do when I use the ‘monster-in-me’ strategy is to explain to the child that, as they know, their parents have told me that they get into a lot of trouble. I explain that I don’t think that it is their fault that they get into a lot of trouble. I think that it is the monster that lives inside them that gets them into a lot of trouble. It’s the monster’s fault!

Now when you hear this you might be troubled because you might think that I am absolving the child from responsibility for their behaviour. It certainly appears to the child that I am doing that, but in fact I’m not ... because I will subsequently make it clear that it is the child’s responsibility to control the monster!

I say to the child:

I think you get into trouble because there’s this monster that lives inside you.

Usually the monster is sound asleep, and when he’s asleep he shrinks and becomes very, very, small. So small that he’s smaller than a pinhead. Now, I think that when you start to get angry the monster wakes up, and he starts to get bigger, and bigger, and bigger, and bigger! He then takes over and does the most terrible things, he throws things around, he kicks, he punches, he yells, and he screams. And as a result you get into an awful lot of trouble, and that isn’t fair!

The monster just goes back to sleep and doesn’t get into any trouble at all, but you get into trouble!

Now I’d like you to draw me a great big picture of the monster that lives inside you with these coloured felt pens.

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