Training therapists to treat the young child in the family and the family in the young child’s treatment

Treating young children in family sessions has been practiced by many therapists since the inception of both child and family therapy without a theoretical base. The purpose of the seminar, The Young Child in Family Therapy, is to expand the participants’ assessment and treatment skills with young children and their families by using both family systems and psychodynamic theories and techniques. The lack of language skill should not, however, eliminate the inclusion of young children in therapy either individually or in family sessions. Knowledge of the family life cycle provides the beginning therapist a tool to assess the family and monitor its progress in treatment in the same way that knowing individual development serves for the individual. There are certain conditions under which young children should not be seen in family sessions. Parents are not the only ones whose ego must be flexible enough to tolerate the regressive pulls of a young child.