ABSTRACT
In this chapter, Phase V of Therapeutic Assessment of Children is addressed: the Follow-up Session with parents. This session usually occurs 2 months or so from the Summary/Discussion Session with the child and parents. The decision that only parents are invited is discussed, informed by attachment theory. Several goals and benefits are held in mind for this session: 1) for the parents to feel “held” and “remembered”; 2) to see how the family is progressing with the new narrative and suggestions that came out of the assessment; 3) to reinforce messages and insights derived from the assessment; and 4) to satisfy assessors’ desire to know how Therapeutic Assessment with Children is useful and how it might be able to be improved. This session provides the assessor an opportunity to applaud the parents if things are going well and offers the chance to empathize and explore other suggestions if progress has stalled. To this end, a practical outline to conduct Follow-up Sessions is provided. The chapter ends by returning to the case study being followed across chapters.
