Counseling Children Who Have Been

Counseling children who have been abused is a difficult task for most practitioners. The occurrence of substantiated and reported child abuse has increased drastically since the realization of the Battered Child Syndrome. The world has moved via different phases of public awareness concerning child abuse. Practitioners acknowledge that the prevalence of child sexual abuse, which involves both young girls and boys, is augmenting awareness of all forms of child abuse. Increased shifts in knowledge requires that practitioners understand signs of child abuse, the laws available for reporting child abuse, the treatment needs, issues linked to child abuse counseling and best approaches that fosters appropriate counseling. Given that most abused children are often unable or disinclined to disclose their condition to a counselor, perhaps because of threats from their abusers, this paper discusses the appropriate approach to counseling such children. The paper takes a Christian perspective and underlines the best appropriate treatment and approach to counseling abused children.

Introduction

Counseling refers to the therapeutic link between a qualified therapist and a client. It entails the process by which a counselor and a client work collectively to achieve divergent means to experience psychological, relationships and emotional concerns. Counseling is a simple form that entails the procedure of giving guidance and advice. Counseling provides an objective view to a person in need of help and he/she obtains strategies and insights to facilitate management of the particular situation one is going through. Childhood is a time that requires protection, teaching and nurturing (Thompson & Lenderson, 2010). However, adult caretakers, relatives and other members of the society tasked with protecting children turn against them and abuse them psychologically, emotionally and physically. Abused children usually do not want to disclose their conditions because of fear of threats from their abusers (Tuohimaa, Santtila, Sandnabba, 2009). However, any form of child abuse is a crucial trauma that may hold lifelong effects on the victim. When abused child seek counseling services, counselors must be prepared to evaluate the role the abuse plays in the development of a child and the impact of the abuse to the child (Mart, 2010). A counselor assists an abused person to fathom her/himself and his/her problems. A well-counseled child uses the advice and guidance offered to her to make better choices in her life.

Effects of Child Abuse To A Child

Deb & Mukherje (2011) assert that abused children, particularly those who are sexually abused constantly suffer during and after the abuse. While some of the emotional and psychological harms are apparent to caretakers or parents some parents or caregivers do not recognize them. Abused children suffer confusion and they adapt mixed up feeling regarding what took place and the reactions of family, friends upon hearing an abused child predicament. Abused children also suffer guilt and some believe that they are accountable for the abuse. They also suffer from shame and they feel worthless. Abused children also become fearful, principally when the abuser threatens them if they disclose their predicaments. Such children become grieved and they begin to see the world as a risk and unfriendly place. Abused children, especially those abused by their parents, relations or people they trust as closed friends may begin to mourn the loss of their connection with their abusers. Additionally, abused children sow intense anger in their hearts and this anger may make them turn against other people who they believe failed to protect them. They may also hurt themselves out of anger and they become helpless.

More importantly, abused children suffer depression caused by the trauma following the abuse. Such children are always sad and less playful and they may loss interests in school, friends and other social activities. Depending on the temperament of abuse, and how critical it is, depressive feelings may manifest through sleeping problems, irrational fears, physical complaints, problem in eating and inability to concentrate in school and in other social activities. An abused child may develop fears and feelings that can affect her entire life if the child is not provided with appropriate and sufficient counseling. While people can change, heal and grow themselves, children require help from qualified people. Counseling is crucial when a child experiences betrayal from a person close to her/him. Counseling is also essential to a child who is struggling with the effects of child abuse, or when the family fails to support the child when he/she reveals the abuse.

The Best Approach

To help an abused child overcome the effects of the abuse, a counselor should help the child to build up a rational evaluation of his/her unique character, abilities and skills. The child should be helped to build up a powerful sense of God's forgiveness and love. The abused child should be made to understand God's love for his people and particularly children. By making, the child to understand that he/she is important to God, who created her/him by his own image, fears and helplessness of a child are removed. John 3: 16 is a good encouragement to the child, and it helps the child handle anger and fear towards his/her abusers. Matthew 5: 44, "But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you," helps the child to sow love towards the perpetrators of child abuse. This way the child becomes less burdened with hate and sorrow. However, the counselors must make children to understand that child abuse is both a sin in the eyes of the lord and a crime under the law.

However, counseling alone cannot guarantee safety of an abused child. There are scores of professionals engaged in working with abused children. While Children Protective Services personnel coordinate the intervention, medical personnel also need to be included. The professionals include pediatricians who assess the development and growth of a child. Other professionals include public health nurses or physical therapists who work with the family (Tuohimaa, Santtila, & Sandnabba, 2009). If an abused child is taken away from home, the child should be entitled to a foster parent. School personnel and educators are also important members in counseling and assisting an abused child. They monitor the child's daily progress and safety and they develop programs to enhance the self-esteem of a child as well as his/her cognitive development. In event that an abused child is at risk, a counselor employs a team perspective that guarantees success as opposed to a single intervention of providing counseling.

The major role of counseling to an abused child is to offer a safe place and relationship where the jeopardized development of a child becomes unstuck. Counselors do not replace the required parental attachment, which facilitates the development and growth of a child. However, counselors hold the prospect to assist a child build up a trusting connection with a grown-up. Understanding an abused child requires a clear assessment of the developmental phase of a child and not his/her chronological age (Kuehnle and Connell, 2010). The counselor has the potential to determine adaptations of a child following the abuse besides showing the abused child more suitable means of interacting.

Children discloses during play their traumatic occurrences of their past. The children may also demonstrate their maladaptive conducts which places them at risks of maltreatment. In a counseling association, operating with an abused child calls for scores of methods besides listening and talking. The counselor should ensure the use of unstructured or structured play conditions, music, play and artwork so as to offer a safe means of the abused person to release tension. Through play, artwork and music, the child can express his/her feelings. Dollhouses and dolls help the abused child to express family issues. Scores of abused children hold no standard play prospects and as a result, they benefit from free plays during the counseling process. Reading stories, role-plays and puppets help a maltreated child in trying novel perspectives to relationships.