9yo with OCD - any therapy experience?

[TherapeuticVino]

I'm feeling a bit frustrated....

My 9 year old has OCD and has been seeing a psychotherapist for just over a year but doesn't seem to have made any real progress - hand washing and "checking" are as bad as ever. My real frustration is that the therapist pretty much refuses to tell me what they're doing due to "patient confidentiality". I understand that, but when he's having a really rough patch I wish I knew what I could be reinforcing to help him!

He hasn't seen the therapist for a few weeks and had a meltdown today and when I asked what the counsellor would tell him to do he said he didn't know - they just chatted. I have started looking for different therapists that specialise in CBT as I just want to be able to help and feel that he has the tools to control this....is this the right way to go?

Any help gratefully received.

I agree that I think you should seek another therapist. Especially if after a year your son says they only chat.!! probably the therapist thinks he is imparting great knowledge!!! Does your son offer you any insight to why he does what he does?? Is there any way that you can say get him to wash maybe not the ?? time and offer a small reward? Good luck.

Wouldn't be happy with this either. Not that we've managed to get our ds (8) anywhere near a psychotherapist. School's ed psyche (comes at things from a CBT perspective) said he'd be interested in knowing what our son was avoiding each time he went into a fit of this behaviour. Whilst ds then hated us pursuing this line of questioning it did have a dramatic effect on his constant touching and hand-washing. Other thing that rang a bell with us was understanding what emotions OCD behaviour caused (reassurance/relief) and finding other ways he could make himself feel good too (particular tunes were best in ds's case).

Thank you for responding. Latootle the hand washing started after my son was very ill and the germ phobia kicked in - the threat of "germs" got completely out of proportion.... he does make progress but I really need to know how I can support him...

yomellamoHelly I'm sorry you haven't been given the help you need. I actually completely sidestepped the school counsellor and GP and went straight to a private psychotherapist but now I'm regretting that as it seems she may not have been the right one for DS... We just haven't found another way of getting her to relax/feel reassured during one of her episodes - she's completely crippled at times. I've actually started wondering whether medication might help too - something to talk to the new therapist about I guess.

Thanks for your replies.