What Are the Advantages of Filial Therapy?
Through filial therapy, parents are helped to see below the surface, to understand the meaning of the child’s message in the play, and to develop insight into the child’s needs and feelings-to “see their child differently” and understand “how their child sees the situation.” Between sessions, parents can guide and support new behavior, unlike regular counselors, and clear up any misperceptions of their child’s appropriate or inappropriate behavior. There is a major advantage to the parent being a therapeutic agent for his or her own child because parents learn new attitudes and interpersonal techniques that are carried over after formal therapy ends. All of these things also help to boost the parent’s morale-making him or her the instrument of change. Parents also gain new and deeper understanding of their child, which weakens habitual negative patterns of interaction.
