3. Therapeutic Relationships

Becoming Centered

Therapeutic relationships help your clients become centered in four domains of psychological functioning. This can be visualized using The Domain Compass:

· In the East, there’s the domain of emotions, consisting of feeling and moods.

· In the South, there’s the domain of cognitions, consisting of thoughts and beliefs.

· In the West, there’s the domain of behaviors, consisting of both all external actions and the internal actions of the physical body.

· In the North, there’s the domain of executive skills and self-regulation.

1. Three relationship qualities to strive for within the domain of emotions.

· Focus on increasing clients’ awareness of their own emotions.

o The Check-In technique helps clients express their feelings and moods in words or in various kinds of rating scales.

· Help sooth emotions that become too powerful or chaotic.

o The Low and Slow approach helps to cool down an overheating nervous system.

o The Organized Activities approach helps to structure a chaotic nervous system.

· Build up clients’ fragile and/or low self-esteem.

o Praise works through high frequency repetition to help kids see their own strengths and worth.

o Attention helps kids feel their own worth. Often times, older kids in residential treatment still need the intense level of attention that people appear to intuitively give to pre-schoolers.

2. Two relationship qualities that help kids within the domain of cognitions.

· Increase external structures to reduce cognitive chaos.

· Break sequences down into smaller chunks.

3. Three relationship qualities that help kids become behaviorally and physiologically centered.

· Attend to kids’ basic physiological needs (water, food, sleep, exercise, rest).

· Become an active and skilled listener.

· Co-regulate with kids through joining them in play.

4. One key relationship quality that helps kids in the domain of executive skills.

· Help each kid make and keep friends.