Training for counselling young people – What is added by a child and adolescent specialism?

Abstract

ABSTRACT Working with older adolescents and young adults is somewhat disputed territory. Those with qualifications in work with adults can easily adapt to working with this age-group, and historically this has been the most usual route into the role. In this paper, I argue, however, that there is likely to be a difference between their approach and that of those who have had a specialist training to work with children and adolescents. Such trainings are likely to imbue in clinicians a much stronger awareness of: the developmental perspective; the power of ongoing family dynamics; the vexed trajectory into individual independence and identity formation and the particular vicissitudes of the learning experience. Experience of having also worked with younger children provides counsellors/therapists with a different appreciation of defensive constellations and a nuanced awareness of transference dynamics when the age and status differences between practitioner and client are greater. Working with younger people also requires a sophisticated understanding of organisational dynamics – which are less likely to feature in adult trainings. These elements provide a significantly different perspective on the work which therefore suggests that specialist training input is of great value. Examples are given in the paper to illustrate these ideas.