Camhs counsellor - does this sound odd?

[fightingthezombies]

Ds (10) seeing Camhs counsellor following CAF referral. She met with him a few times,came to our house to chat with us and then gave us the results from her assessment. She said she would do 6 weekly sessions with him to concentrate on improving self-esteem. She seemed to be assessing us in some ways, saying that he was anxious because everyone around him was (us & school) and that he needs to be given more control. He is contantly trying to manipulate situations and take control so I think giving him more power is likely to make things worse,school agree too. Anyway,first session was last week and today ds started saying that he was not happy speaking to her and felt that she was trying to find fault with us. She also started the session by laying down ground rules such as (in ds's words) I don't want you trashing the room or hitting me,if you respect me I'll respect you etc..Now ds has never trashed a room or hit staff so why would she say this? How can this be helping his self-esteem? Am tempted to cancel further sessions but no doubt we will be seen to be in the wrong for doing this. Any views?

Have CAMHS given you an information leaflet about their unit? Is the counsellor a qualified Clinical psychologist or is she perhaps a Social Worker? Ask the receptionist whether she is a doctor or a social worker. then look her up on a list of Psychologists or on GSSC reg list.

I recently accessed CAMHS (on my own behalf) and only ever saw a trainee Nurse Practitioner. She was wonderful, but I am an NT adult capable of self-diagnosis even if I do need a kick up the arse sometimes ;)

IMO, that would not be appropriate for a 10 year old child with SN, which implies some level of communication difficulty (correct me if I'm wrong)

If you are not happy with things, you might want to find out what the counsellor's exact qualifications are and what experience she has working with children and/or SN :) Not all therapists get on with all clients, and it is perfectly reasonable to request someone else on this basis...

Thanks Purplepidjin,yes ds has social communication issues (suspected AS). She is due to see him again this week but he has said that he will tell the school receptionist that he is ill and refuse to see her. Am not too impressed as she said she would confirm everything in writing 3 weeks ago and no letter has been sent. will see how this week goes and probably request someone else for him. He says he wants to talk to someone but not her.

You could ask him whether he wants you to be present when he has the meeting with her.

Trouble is she pops in at different times throughout the schools day and I work.

Is it a big CAMHS unit with a lot of support workers. The camhs unit we went to was only a small one in a small town, they were supposed to have social workers attached to them, but I think they were underfunded and under-staffed. I wonder if this person who has seen your son is actually a social worker.

Those ground rules sound absolutely awful - and like she does not know how to do her job properly.

With hindsight I'd recommend stopping your DS from seeing this person - because my son saw a 'behaviour support therapist' who wasn't required or very good - and not only did this person not help, but has not put my son off counselors for life.....

This person does not know what they are doing if they opened the session with rules like that.