ABSTRACT
This chapter covers the Initial Phase of the practice of Therapeutic Assessment with Children (TA-C). This phase includes the first three components of the comprehensive model: (1) the initial phone contact with parents where TA-C is explained, information is gathered to assess if this type of assessment is warranted and desired, and if so, an agreement is made to go forward; (2) the first parent session where Assessment Questions are agreed upon and contextualized; and (3) the parent-child session, where the child is introduced to the process of the assessment, parents are invited to observe their child's testing sessions, and the first activities between the assessor and the child begin. Goals and steps for each of the three components are provided. The assessor is encouraged to begin to organize information being gathered into a timeline of major child/family events and a multigenerational genogram, both of which are further developed during the process of the assessment. To demonstrate the real-world practice of TA-C, a case study of a ten-year-old boy and his parents is introduced and illustrated with the three components. This case study is followed through the next six chapters.
