feeling-seen - by Michael Bachg

Benefits and goals

feeling-seen shows us ways to bring children and parents together in problematic situations, instead of separating them in different therapy settings such as child therapy and parent counselling, which is a somewhat common practice.

In constellations such as these, the therapist frequently puts himself in a key position, since he is the only one who knows both the child's and the parents' viewpoint, and who is confronted with the task of connecting these views and communicating them mutually.

When asked, most children and adolescents treated with feeling- seen prefer their parents to be present. However, should a child or adolescent wish to work alone, this wish will be accommodated.

After a family counselling session, there will be a subsequent pa- rents' counselling where the parents will have the opportunity to talk about their own feelings, worries and needs, and work on them with- out the child being present.

It is the intention of feeling-seen to see and understand the child or adolescent with regard to his own inner experience and his perspec- tive on his own life – if possible, while the parents are present. Only in this way will we be able to identify what the child is lacking, which are the uncontrollable border violations he is suffering from, or where he is trying to fill roles and functions that are not being filled within the framework of the family, either entirely or partly for himself or for the well-being of other members of the family, in order to relieve them.