Therapeutic Use of Fact Sheets in Family Therapy with Children and Adolescents With Functional Somatic Symptoms

Abstract

Functional somatic symptoms signal distress and reflect an activation of the body's stress-regulation systems. Many different types of stressors – physical, emotional or both – may activate the body's stress-regulation systems. If stress-related disruptions are extreme or are not limited in time, functional somatic symptoms may emerge, signalling that the body remains in a state of activation and somatic distress. In this paper, we describe the development of therapeutic fact sheets, which are used as part of our multimodal, family-based, rehabilitation intervention for children and adolescents presenting with functional somatic symptoms. The fact sheets provide information about functional somatic symptoms – including their assessment and treatment – from a stress-system framework. They are used in the context of a family intervention to facilitate engagement with the family and to reduce parental anxiety and reactivity. Whilst the fact sheets were initially developed for parents, over time we found that the sheets were also useful in managing anxiety in the medical and school systems. A key goal of this article is to share this resource with other clinicians working with children/adolescents with functional somatic symptoms.