Designing the Office

Congratulations! After reviewing your materials, the Middle Valley Child Consortium has decided to hire you for their Middle Valley Child and Adolescent Counseling Project. They have offered you the chance to choose the setting for your counseling work and they’ve given you a budget for materials and reference books.

Part 1: Choosing Materials for Child and Adolescent Counseling

After completing the interactive media, “Choosing Materials for Play Therapy,” and reading the article you chose that illustrates using expressive techniques with families with small children (Wehrman and Field’s 2013 article, “Play-Based Activities in Family Counseling”) or with adolescents in groups (Swank and Lenes’s 2013 article, “An Exploratory Inquiry of Sandtray Group Experiences With Adolescent Females in an Alternative School”), describe the following:

• What practice setting did you choose for your hypothetical work with children and adolescents?
• What materials did you choose for your setting, and why?
• What role did culture play in selecting materials for use in play therapy?

Part 2: Choosing Books to Expand your Knowledge

At this point in the course, you’ve probably identified a particular area of professional interest. Imagine you’ve been given a blank check to purchase any three books for your professional library. What will you choose?

• First, clearly identify your area of interest and briefly explain why you want to learn more about it.
• Review the list of optional books in this course and decide upon three books that are in a particular area of interest you.
• List the references for your three books.
• For each book, offer a brief rationale for that explains how this resource will enhance your knowledge in an area where you want to add specialized knowledge about child or adolescent counseling.

Part 3: Reflection on the Exercise

How has this exercise influenced your ideas about child and adolescent therapy, and what is involved in being an effective therapist for young people?