ABSTRACT
The therapist can ally with the common sense side of the parents when discussing many problems. Even very young children can be taught this, and with older children, parents should insist on having their own time, and should feel free to try to teach the child to wait until the parent is ready. Usually the child is ready to continue playing in a moment, and the parent typically can return to whatever was going on previously. A parent may overreact to a child’s expression of feeling, and may even serve in effect as an amplification device, making more vivid and substantial what would otherwise have been rather muted and transitory. Saying that parents may need to help children contain feelings is the opposite of the usual psychological advice to encourage the expression of affect, advice which has an important place in relations with people.
