When James arrived for his next session, I met him in the waiting room. He held his arm behind his back. As we stepped into the office, he brought his arm forward and smiled. The cast was covered with names and James was one happy kid. Don t write it when you can draw it .
Most depressed children are highly avoidant.
They won t try new things because they are certain they will fail, and they avoid new activities because they think they won t have fun. It is helpful to obtain from children a measure of the difficulty of a task before it is undertaken. The child and I use part of a session to design a feeling thermometer and I have lots of glue, tape, colored markers, stickers, and colored ribbons on hand. Once we finish constructing the feeling thermometer, I use the remainder of the session to explain the many ways it can be used. For example, depressed kids often will not try something because they think they won t have any fun.