h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hey there,

Interesting article! I just started volunteering at Childline (the only free mental health telephone service for children in Britiain), and I found your article gave me lots to think about. It's weird that there are quite a few differences from the approach that your article suggests, and the one ChildLine trained me in, eg. ChildLine takes the view that reflecting (maybe not in exactly the same words, but sometimes..) is a way of validating someone who may feel that noone is listening to them - hearing something back that was difficult for them to say is empowering. Still, I guess the goal is the same!

Anyway, I think it's a great idea to encourage people to think about ways of supporting each other. Well done!!

Mushy M.

Hi Mushy Mayt!

Are the children you work with often suicidal? (I'm American; have never heard of Childline before in my life...) I think that perhaps with most of the problems that children have, letting them know you understand where they are coming from might be good, but... It also depends on how serious the problem is... You can't really measure of course, but if things are getting so bad the kid wants to kill hirself, sometimes the impetus should be reflected back and sometimes it so *not* be.. I think that's a human judgement call...

Hey this entry is in Peer Review at F48874?thread=200992 -- I'm sure Lucrecia would appreciate it if you went in there and mentioned exactly what the differences between what you've been taught and what she's written... That's the point of PR after all! Or perhaps she wouldn't appreciate it, but it would certainly be very useful and most likely make the entry better. Then you can both defend the reasoning behind what you do and including that in the entry would make it stronger, I think.... Just a thought. (You could already have visited the PR thread... Don't know... *shrug* In which case, ignore this suggestion! )

Shee

Hi Marty.

Thanks for the input! Sorry it took me so long to notice that your post was here! I forgot to subscribe to the conversations for this article.

Anyway, Shree's right. If there are any huge differences, I'd be glad to here them.

As far as the reflecting goes... we were told that reflecting was a good thing in ever situation *other* than potential suicides because of the hightened emotional states. You can sound kind of like a jerk if someone is saying "I hate myself" and you say back "So you feel like you hate yourself... Okay, what else do you feel?" The circumstances are just so high strung that it sounds out of place and patronizing... But then again, the situation is probably entirely different with pre-pubescent (<- spelling?) "clients" for lack of a better word.

Thanks for the kudos!

-Lucrecia