What happens at School counselling/Therapy

[Gingersay]

My 9 years old dd is waiting on a diagnosis for ASD, more likely aspengers although I'm not that sure about it all.
Her school has called today and offered School counselling an independent therapist is coming into work with her for an hour once a week for the next term, I am glad that after 5 years we are finally getting extra support.
I'm now wondering what's involved what will they ask her, we have quite a boring normal lifestyle no dramas but I can't help feeling a bit weird about the whole thing.

My Ds's old school organised some in-school counselling, provided by an outside charity. He has an ASD diagnosis and I was also pleased that he was finally getting some support, as at that time Camhs had just rejected his referral. School didn't tell us that we had to pay, and we were sent a bill.

For Ds it didn't help and I think one of the reasons is that many generic counsellors don't have experience of children and young people with ASD and the different ways that they may communicate. The sessions were confidential and I talked to the counsellor once, but I got the impression that their conversations were barely scratching the surface as far as Ds being able to communicate some of his really significant difficulties. So for him it wasn't worth the money we paid for it.

That of course doesn't mean that it won't be something that is really positive for your Dd. Hope that it helps and makes a difference for her. I still have no idea what Ds talked about or whether he said much at all, so can't really offer any advice about that!

Thanks for your reply, that's a shame it didn't help for your DS and I can't believe you had to pay for it!!
To be honest I don't know how this will help DD but we'll give it a go... fingers crossed.

My DS has just finished a year of counselling/therapy at his primary. He was YR6 and has an ASD diagnosis. One of his main barriers to learning is his all-consuming anxiety.

I obviously can't speak for what will happen in your DD's case but with me the therapist and I had a zoom chat at the beginning of the year. I outlined his main areas of difficulty, giving some examples and some of his history.

She did some mindfulness with him and tried to give him some coping strategies for when he started to feel overwhelmed. She also tried to help him with his tendency to catastrophise things. He's obsessed with people he loves dying/global warming/ thinks bees are going to 'kill him'.

He loved his hour a week with her. They played games and did colouring/cooking. She allowed him space to talk about things when he wanted to - but didn't push things.

She would then check in with me once a term to share any tips/techniques that we could employ both at home and at school.

I'm not sure how much it's really helped to be honest as his difficulties are so profound but I do think he's benefited from having another adult to learn to interact and communicate with.