Helpful thoughts: An excellent game to introduce children to cognitive behavioural therapy
In this article, I discuss a game which shows children how they can replace unhelpful thoughts with helpful thoughts to help them cope with difficult situations. People of all ages have to deal with issues in which managing their emotional reactions is at the core. Emotions such as sadness, anxiety, anger, frustration, guilt and shame are challenging to handle whether you are a young child, an adolescent or an adult. Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) offers people skills which they can use to face these challenges. Many of these skills focus on a person learning how to change their thoughts in order to feel better. This positive emotional result is usually accompanied by positive behavioural consequences. Although CBT principles are common across age groups, the manner in which CBT skills are taught will typically differ based on the age of the client. For young children, this entails introducing skills and ideas in a simple, practical and fun way. In the following sections I will discuss a game called ‘Helpful Thoughts’ which does just that...[more]
