Can parents help additionally?
Parents are often made co-therapists at the request of the doctor or therapist by being involved in the therapeutic process.This means that if the prescribed doctors so wish, parents can practice things from the therapy with their children at home and thus help and reduce the therapy costs. This allows the child to do certain exercises much more often than, for example, if they only go to therapy once a week. Some deficits or impairments require exactly this frequent training.
Accordingly, the therapy is also prescribed for several times a week. If situations from everyday life are worked on with the children, it seems to make sense that they can train them directly at home with the support of their parents outside the therapy. Nevertheless, the involvement of the parents in the therapy process also has its dark sides.
It is possible that parents feel overwhelmed in their role as co-therapists and observe that the relationship with the child can change. The child notices that the parent behaves differently in the role of therapist than in the role of parent. The child sometimes cannot cope with this difference and as a consequence rejects the parent in both roles.
It is particularly difficult in the area of psychiatric disorders to involve parents in the therapy sessions. In summary, it cannot be generalized whether parents, or in what form parents can help additionally. This should always be discussed individually with the treating therapist.
