Disclosure

I have also been reading, with great interest, how others are viewing the question of disclosure to clients, and I apologize for not having added my thoughts to my previous post.

Most of the posting individuals who appreciated therapist/client disclosure were working with therapists who had worked through their own trauma and had developed a specific, safe level of trust with their clients over a good period of time. This level of trust helped to erase the invisible (and, often misunderstood) therapist/client boundary. Of utmost importance, the clients had made the personal choice to seek help for themselves and, typically, these are the people who find success in their therapies. Some individuals who are forced into treatment may find some level of success, but the people who make the personal decision to help themselves are the ones who typically see a greater rate of personal success.

In a juvenile group home setting, the children are being thrown into a very frightening environment far from anything familiar and have not personally made the choice to enter into treatment. These children have been sent to the facility via a Court Order, a physician's recommendation, a case-worker's assessment, and/or the parents'/guardian's final attempt to "fix" a seriously broken child. In such an environment, counselors are met with defiance, denial, rage, fear, INTENSE distrust, and very deep abandonment issues. Because of the fact that these are (first, and foremost) children, they do not have a clear understanding of what is in their own best interests and attempts to assure these kids that "it's all for the best" for them to accept their situation and willingly participate in treatment is not only unreasonable, but often unsuccessful.

Personally, I often wonder how (and, why) packing troubled children off to group homes became such a popular notion. A child's treatment and recovery should begin with the parents'/guardian's treatment and recovery. Once the parents/guardians have begun their own recovery (for WHATEVER issues are at the core), they will be able to assist their children with loving, empathetic encouragement and personal example. In the U.S., we must have a license to drive a vehicle, a license to own a business, a license to practice medicine, a license to marry, and there is NO prerequisite to produce offspring...oh, jeeeez...I've just stepped off of the proverbial deep end. Sorry for the rant! Tweet