What is the theory behind this Parent Child Therapy Worksheet?
Family therapy is a type of psychotherapy that addresses specific emotional, mental and behavioural issues pertaining to a family system. It may include individual members or the family unit as a whole. The aim is to encourage effective communication and cohesiveness so that problems are solved within the family through mutual support.
How will the worksheet help?
The worksheet will provide guidance related to an activity that can be utilised in family therapy with all family members present. The purpose of this activity is to encourage open communication within the family. It will also help the therapist identify issues within the family unit that need to be probed further and addressed in the therapy sessions.
How to use the worksheet?
Read through the instructions and prepare questions for the activity based on what you want to know about the family dynamics and what you already know about their issues. The questions at the end of the activity can be decided based on the responses or could be general discussion questions about what they learned from the activity about each other.
Parent and Child Therapy Worksheet
| Activity Name | Coloured Candy Go Around |
| Participants | Group or family |
| Goals | Encourage open communicationIdentify issues within the family unitGet to know the family and its dynamics |
| Materials | Any pack of candies that are of different colours such as Skittles or MnMs or colored Legos or colored beads |
| Instructions | Each family member randomly gets at least 10 candiesGive them time to sort their candies according to colours.Ask each family member to share how many of each colour they haveTell them each colour corresponds to a question or topic. The number of candies they have of that specific colour represents the number of responses they have to give. For e.g Green: What would you like to change about your family? Blue: How do you react when you are angry at home? Choose the questions and topics depending what needs to be probed about the issues in the family Go around each family member in the circle. If someone does not have that particular colour they have to respond according to the number of responses of the member before them.Make sure everyone gets the chance to speak without getting interrupted in any wayOnce the activity is over – use the responses to ask further questions that can help identify issues/family dynamics or allow the family member to open up about their thoughts and feelings. |
References
You can download this worksheet here.