Say More About That Show Notes: Episode #4 – A 10 year old girl's search for a nice therapist.
Jeff Guenther, MS, LPC on Mar 24, 2019 in Say More About That
A 10 year old girl in 5th grade with rainbow colored hair, was ambushed by her parents when she returned from camp and dragged to therapy to work on “family dynamics”. As you can imagine, it didn’t go well. She explains why that experience was so jarring and what specifically she didn’t like about the therapist. Even after that less ideal introduction to therapy, she decided to give it another try – this time on her own terms. She knew exactly what she was looking for and she was going to determine if her next counselor was a good fit. Find out why she loves her current therapist and get some solid advice from a 10 year old about what therapists can do to better serve clients like her.
Jeff, a licensed therapist and the host of Say More About That, talks with a 10 year old about her experience of searching for a therapist and going to counseling.
This episode covers:
- Why her first experience was problematic for her and how it failed.
- How she decided to give therapy another chance and how she felt motivated after a negative experience.
- What she sees as the most important quality for a therapist when treating girls her age.
- How her current therapist won her over in the first session.
- How counseling went when her little brother came in for a few sessions.
- Advice from a 10 year old for other children that are afraid to go to therapy.
Memorable quotes in the podcast
On her first therapy experience:
“I felt like the therapist I was with kept telling me, or implying, that I was wrong and shouldn’t have these opinions. And I am pretty sure that’s not what a therapist should do. He was calm. But he was weirdly calm.”
On whether or not she wanted to go back to the first therapist:
“I do not want to go back there. Never ever ever ever never ever.”
On what she wanted in her next therapist:
"I made it really clear that I wanted a girl. This might not be true for all girls, but I know that some girls think alike so I wanted that female presence with me. The only thing that really mattered was that she was nice and that she was a girl.”
On why the first session with the new therapist went so well:
“She was so nice and kind. And I knew I loved her right as she said hi. Because what she did right when I met her is that she welcomed me herself and then she told me to tell her everything about me and then she told me things about her. I thought that was really cool because we got to know each other personally.”
Her message to kids that don’t want to go to therapy:
“Just go. It will make you feel so much better even if you have just one session. A therapist is like having a mom or a dad but they will never yell or get mad at anything you say.”
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