OVC Support Toolkit  >  Psychosocial support  >  Psychosocial Responses 

Counselling

This section looks at counselling orphans and other vulnerable children. General principles to guide psychosocial responses for these children and young people are contained in another section. Other sections look in detail at succession planning, training in psychosocial support and examples of psychosocial responses.

Key points about counselling children and young people are:

1. The basic principles of counselling are the same as for counselling an adult.

2. Counselling may be provided to children and young people individually or as part of family counselling. Common situations which mean children and young people need counselling include HIV testing, disclosure of HIV test results, death or illness of a family member and sexual abuse.

3. Counselling a child requires a relationship to be established between the child and the counsellor. This is called 'joining'. Methods to do this depend on the age of the child.

4. Counselling children and young people requires skills in talking and listening to children and young people.

5. There are many tools which can be used to help communicate with children and young people. These include drawing, telling stories, play and drama.

Principles of Counselling

Counselling aims to help people cope better with situations they are facing. This is true for counselling children and young people too. This involves helping the child to cope with their emotions and feelings and to help them make positive choices and decisions. Doing this involves:

• Establishing a relationship with the child
• Helping the child tell their story
• Listening carefully
• Providing correct information
• Helping the child make informed decisions
• Helping the child recognise and build on their strengths
• Helping the child develop a positive attitude to life

It does not involve:

• Making decisions for the child
• Judging, interrogating, blaming, preaching, lecturing or arguing
• Making promises that you can not keep
• Imposing beliefs on a child

Types of Counselling

Counselling may be provided to children and young people as individuals. This is called one-to-one counselling. Counselling may also be provided to a child as part of a family. This family counselling is a form of group counselling.

Particular Situations in which a Child may need Counselling

Situations in which a child may need counselling include:

• When HIV testing of a child is being considered.
• When deciding who to tell about the result of an HIV test. Telling someone else the result of a test is called "disclosure". This happens particularly when an adult has had a positive HIV test. The adult needs to decide if they are going to tell their children the result. If they do so, they need to decide how best to do this.
• When someone close to the child is dying or has died.
• When it is suspected or known that a child has suffered sexual abuse.

Counselling Skills

If an adult wishes to counsel a child, they first need to establish a relationship with the child. This is called 'joining'. Methods for doing this depend on the age of the child. They are very different from methods used with adults. For example, for a child under 5 years of age, this may involve getting on the floor to play a game that they like.

Similarly, talking with and listening to children and young people requires special skills and approaches. Other tools may be particularly useful in counselling children and young people. These include telling stories, drawing, drama and games.

Other Issues

Adults providing counselling for children and young people need to be aware of their own feelings towards issues which might come up in counselling a child. In addition, they should be aware of their own beliefs on culture, tradition, religion and gender. They should avoid imposing these on the child. They also need to be clear of rules regarding confidentiality. These should be made clear to the child in a way appropriate for their age. In many cases, counselling may reveal issues which require action. The counsellor may need to act on behalf of the child on some of these issues. This is a form of local advocacy .

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