Filial play therapy and other strategies for working with parents

Parents come to counseling with common and uncommon problems. In the context of working with parents, general empathy refers to having empathy for the universal challenge of raising children. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Louise and Bernard Guerney developed Filial Therapy (FT). FT as a distinct approach to therapeutic change for children is deeply rooted in play therapy as amore general method. Play therapy operates on the presumption that play is both the work and language of children. Interpersonal family interactions constitute an important contributor of childhood behavioral or emotional maladjustment. Filial therapists engage parents and children in a process that leads toward several goals. There are four basic skills that filial therapists teach parents: focusing on children's feelings and actions—empathy, empathic responding, and tracking; following children's lead; structuring play sessions; and limiting children's behavior.