Abstract

AREAS, Malenka; OLIVERA, Julieta  and  ROUSSOS, Andrés. Change and Psychotherapy: The Child’s Perspective. Divers.: Perspect. Psicol. [online]. 2020, vol.16, n.2, pp.245-257.  Epub July 01, 2020. ISSN 1794-9998.  https://doi.org/10.15332/22563067.5553.

Research from the patients’ perspective has provided valuable information about how the psychotherapy process is perceived, helping therapists to understand some of the patient’s reactions. Due to the limited research of this type in the children population, therapy with children has not benefited from this movement. The present study is an empirical work framed in a qualitative analysis approach, in which we inquired about children’s perceptions about different elements related to the psychotherapeutic process. For this purpose, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 10 children between 6 and 12 years old, who were undergoing a psychotherapeutic treatment or had done it in the last year. During the interviews, we inquired about elements such as “therapeutic relationship,” “therapist interventions,” “therapy assessments,” “notions about therapy,” “therapy characteristics,” and “perceived change.” The interviews were analyzed using a consensual qualitative methodology (CQR). The results indicate that children were able to perceive changes concerning their behavior, emotions, and interpersonal relationships and could link these changes with their therapists and the therapeutic alliance established with them.

Keywords : change; patient perspective; qualitative research; child psychotherapy; therapeutic relationship in children.

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