Working with Parents of Anxious Children: Therapeutic Strategies for Encouraging Communication, Coping Change by Christopher McCurry

Author:Christopher McCurry
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-07-03T16:00:00+00:00

IN-SESSION COMMUNICATION

Gerald Patterson and colleagues at the Oregon Social Learning Center (OSLC) have been studying families for decades. They have conducted some interesting research on communication between clinician and clients that is relevant to our work with parents and encourages good parent-to-parent communication (Patterson & Forgatch, 1985). The OSLC group found that the probability of in-session client resistance or noncompliant behaviors (including “interrupting,” “confronting,” “not tracking”) increased when the clinician engaged in behaviors coded as “confront” or “teach.” Confrontation included clinician behaviors reflecting disagreements, challenges to the client’s thinking or decision making, disapproval, confronting, or limit setting. Clinician behaviors coded as “teaching” included any instruction telling clients what they should do, such as implementing a point system or even describing what it typical for a child at a particular age. Now, parents often come to us, if not to be confronted, at least to be given recommendations and perhaps some insight into why their child is behaving this way. We may not experience a great deal of resistance when we communicate these ideas and give these instructions. But the OSLC data give us pause, especially as we think about and guide communication within a client family. We want to tread carefully and encourage family members to do so with each other, certainly during the tender first sessions of the treatment journey.

On the positive side, what the OSLC study also showed was that the in-session probability of client noncompliant behaviors decreased significantly following the clinician behaviors defined as “support” and “facilitate.” Support was defined as clinician behaviors showing warmth, humor, understanding, and/or encouragement. Facilitating behaviors were the basic “back channel” responses we all use to indicate we’re paying attention to and engaged in what the client is saying: “Uh-uh,” “Sure,” “I see.” These are the communication behaviors we need to be modeling, teaching (gently), and encouraging in the families we’re seeing. The ongoing emphasis is on conveying understanding and empathy as the foundation from which change will become possible. From that place of understanding and support, both children and parents will dare to change their behavior, creating new experiences. New experiences bring about new ways of thinking about situations and new emotions associated with those situations.

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