Filial Therapy

Filial Therapy has been said by some therapists to be one of the most creative ideas ever had on how to work effectively with children and their families.   The basic idea of Filial Therapy is that parents and carers are the best adults to work with their children, not professionals.  Parents know their children well, and they are the ones that matter most to their children, even when behavioural or emotional problems make it more difficult for parents to realise this.  Experienced therapists trained in Filial Therapy, rather than developing new relationships with children, instead train parents to undertake special play sessions with their own children under direct supervision, then indirect supervision, and then to generalise these new skills to everyday family life.   The skills parents learn are based on Non-directive Play Therapy principles and are learned more easily because parents put them into practice and receive immediate feedback from their therapists.  Filial Therapy is for very young children as well as older children, and all family members are helped to take part either directly or indirectly.  Research has shown that this method of therapy is highly effective for both children and their parents.

Virginia offers Filial Therapy for a wide range of behavioural and attachment related problems.  She is able to work with individual families or groups of families, as well as offering filial therapy to birth families, adoptive families, reconstituted families and foster families.  Other settings Virginia can offer Filial Therapy in are schools and residential homes for children.  Please contact Virginia for a detailed filial therapy quotation.

Other websites of interest are:

www.filialtherapy.co.uk  for more information about filial therapy

www.play-therapy.com for more US information about play therapy and filial therapy

The US Association for Filial and Relationship Enhancement Methods at www.AFREM.org