Interactive assessment in children
Why a detailed history
In the light of proficiency, when someone visits professionals for help relating to psychological needs, it is important to systematically identify the contents in the clinical discussion. While you would speak about the troubles, emotions and concerns regarding your children that have been bothering you; we as experts would make a mental and active note of what you feel and try to identify why you feel so. There are many events in your day-to-day interaction with your child that may have relevance to the issues being addressed at present. In our initial detailed clinical interview with parents, we would achieve a summary of all the relevant information that would help us to help you understand your child’s emotional issues and find productive and systematic ways to deal with them. There are also significant contributions to the child’s behavior by the parent and family behavior in the child’s home. It is essential for us to obtain the 360 degree picture of the situation so that we can identify the root cause of the problem.
What we need to know
We understand the turmoil related to behavioral and emotional problems in children. More often than not, parents try to overcome these battles without help. Everyone has their own theories; friends, family, neighbors all have their inputs when it comes to child behavior, but at some point when these fail you seek assistance. We at MINDFRAMES wish to gauge your troubles in a non-threatening and non-invasive manner. We wish to assess what is relevant to your child’s emotional behavior and are well aware of events and occurrences in life that contribute to these troubles. We respect the comfort and preferences of all our parents and appreciate that they do the best for their children. We never doubt the finest interests that all parents have for their little ones.
The process
We try and speak to the parents during the first clinical interview so that we gain a good understanding of the parental concerns. With the children (in case of children who are slightly older and communicate by themselves) we initially offer an open-ended invitation just to talk about what the child thinks is the reasons for the evaluation. We encourage free speech, where the child or teenager is free to rattle on about whatever comes to his or her mind. We often note that most children respond with a very few sentences, while some have extensive stories about their school or friends or home or life in general. After free association we offer open-ended invitation to elaborate on the issues at hand. Rapport is the sense of mutual trust and understanding that helps people work together. We respect that sometimes children may be severely distressed and have trust issues. We understand that children are anyways reserved and don’t open up easily. We do respect the same and offer our best effort to break communication barriers and empathize as much as we can.
Respecting confidentiality
We understand and respect confidentiality of all patients and clients. We (under ethical conventions) never disclose information to any external source. Information gained in our clinical setting stays within the walls of the clinic. In television interviews, news and media appearances, media presences and research presentations too, we never quote our parents or children except in a few cases where we have taken their permission and concealed their identity prior to doing so. Communication with schools regarding attention deficit or dyslexia for instance is also offered only with parental consent. We offer with utmost empathy and understand what our children and parents feel.
Unconditional care we offer
MINDFRAMES does not discriminate patients based on their gender, appearance, financial status or race. We see international and local clients with the same zest; conduct workshops in international schools as well as unaffording municipal schools (as part of our social responsibility initiative), conduct programs in multiple languages when needed and we formulate all therapeutic protocols based on the well-deliberated individual need. We expect parents and children to follow our cognitive protocols, medication (as and when prescribed) and maintain electronic communication (emails, messages, online consultations) to help our patients empathically, respectfully and unconditionally. We hope and strive to assure holistic wellness for those we treat.