Discussion 2: Counsellor’s Role with Children (6%)

[Dave]

1. What should the pastoral counsellor’s role be in working with children with
counselling needs? (2 points)
2. What is one of the ways you have learned about in the content covered that you
can begin to use when talking with children at risk? (4 points)
Discuss both topics in 2-3 sentences each.

[Prudence Siweya]

1. When working with children! establishing a trusting relationship is crucial. children need to feel safe and understood. counsellors should used age appropriate techniques like play therapy, drawing, or storytelling to help children express themselves. counsellors needs to access if children are at risk and determine appropriate interventions. help children identify and express their emotions in healthy ways. counsellors should work with parents or caregivers to ensure consistency in support and involve them in the child’s therapeutic process.

2. One way that I would use to engage with children at risk is by using open-ended questions and active listening. this approach helps children feel heard and understood, encouraging them to share more about their thought and feelings. cultural sensitivity: being mindful of diverse cultural contexts when working with children and families.

[Jade Julius]

1.The pastor’s relationship with children, particularly when they are in crisis, can have a significant impact on their spiritual growth and development. The pastors role is creating a safe space for the child to feel comfortable to share. Their role is to work with the child to improve their emotional well-being, social skills and resilience. The pastor should know when its time to involve the parents to work alongside them to ensure the child is feeling supported and seen. It is also important that the pastor used child friendly methods like play therapy and art and storytelling to help relate to the child.

2.The use of art as a method of counselling. Art expresses the longings of our heart and it communicates our emotional needs and fears and it can even reveal our religious ideas. As the counsellor you can ask children to draw a picture that shows their family and ask them to draw lots of details from their you can ask the child to describe their picture. You as the counsellor can use the technique Probing and ask more open ended questions to get more information from the child. What they draw might reveal more about what they are going through than words could ever say.

[Calitz Yache]

1. The pastoral counsellor’s role when working with children with counselling needs is to provide emotional and spiritual support by creating a safe, non-judgmental space for them to explore their different feelings, provide guidance, and help with things like trauma, abuse, anxiety, or loss. Just like all the other members of the church, children also deserve pastoral care. The pastoral counsellor’s role is, therefore, to show care to children.

2. When talking to children at risk, there are various ways of speaking and caring for them. Pastoral counsellors can do so through art, which communicates longings in their hearts and their emotions. Storytelling could provide a different perspective on life, and stories from the Bible are also helpful in providing spiritual insight. Another way is through writing, which is a less intimidating form of communication.

[Eneresi Chomsora]

1) As a pastoral counsellor our role is to be the advocate for the child’s well being. That may be in many different forms and situations but I all of those we fight for the well being of the child and it is our number one priority. It may look like taking them out of an unhealthy not safe home situation or saving them from themselves and placing the in a mental health program or rehabilitation center. As a counselor to a child what or our role looks like is fighting for their well being through advocating for it in any means possible.

2) From this content I have learnt about the rights children have in situations and in that how to make children at risk how to feel a sense of control through those rights. I believe it has shown me another way to bridge the gap and build trust with the at risk child I would be counselling. Often these kids in these situations feel like a problem to be fixed, and object that has been over looked or over used and a thing of now value. Worst of all they feel like someone else or something else is in control of their lives. Through communicating to them their rights I believe it will empower them, equip them if they are ever in an abusive situation again and will aid in building trust in our relationship because it will show that I see them as a person who is in control.

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