What if we had children or teens acting as therapists?

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This is something I tangentially touched on in another thread, and thought it warrants its own thread. If you think about it, adults practicing therapy on kids or even teens feels neither here nor there. I mean, adults have almost limitless freedom of choice in their lives, the complete opposite of most kids or teens. Not to mention easy access to tobacco, alcohol, and prescription drugs. (And in five states, marijuana as well.) The luxuries are something kids can only dream of, and teens have to obtain by dangerous and illegal means. So when a child talks in a teary voice about how his parents won't let him watch TV, or when a teenager angrily complains about a 10:00 PM curfew, what will an adult therapist do? They'll think it's nothing to cry or get upset about, or worse, they'll think it's "cute" .

A child's problems are something only another child can understand---not just smile and nod like someone who doesn't speak English---and thus feel genuine compassion toward the patient. Ditto for teens: only another teenager can truly understand how a teenager feels about an issue in their life. Anything from power-crazy parents, to bullying, to missing favorite TV shows, to having to eat French onion soup. These problems are something adults will never understand, and by and large, don't care to understand. "Because they're not real problems."

I say best solution is to have a child or teenager practicing therapy on a patient the same age. This way, the patient can be 100% assured that he/she is being understood, by someone who experiences the same problems on a regular basis. As opposed to a fake, patronizing quack 3 to 5 times their age, who pretends to be their friend while working for their parents. For safety and security reasons, an adult administrator can supervise the child or teenage therapist, through a hidden camera and microphone. And if absolutely necessary, cut into the session. But the actual therapy will be done by a therapist the same age as the patient.

Is this idea too far in the left field? Or is it so ingenious, only an aspie can come up with it? (said with tongue in cheek) Let's hear your ideas!

It's bad enough that other adults are always telling me that everything I say, think, feel and do is wrong, and how to live my life. I don't need kids doing the same thing.

And you're darn right I'd say "Boo hoo hoo, too bad so sad" if a teen hate's having 10 PM as a curfew. There are enough idiot teens in my neighborhood as it is who are out all hours of the night screeching and cursing and throwing rocks at windows and racing their cars around. What kind of parents allow their kids to do that?

Kids/teens wouldn't be practicing therapy on you---that's what adult therapists are for---they'd be practicing therapy on people their age. And your mindset is the reason for this thread. It's easy to say "because of the idiots in my neighborhood" and smugly pat yourself on the back. When in reality... I don't even want to go there!

Without adequate training, it would be like the blind leading the blind right over the nearest cliff.

Besides, pre-teens can barely handle algebra, and by the time teenagers could be adequately trained as psychotherapists, they wouldn't be teenagers any more, thus defeating your entire premise.

I would not mind being able to practice now, rather than wait 2-8 years, but PLEASE.
Stop encouraging drug abuse, I have seen it break people. It is a terrible thing that ruins lives. It'll make you feel good in the moment, but in the long run does a whole lot of damage.

Also second hand smoke kills more people each year than suicide, it kills others as well.

Psychotherapy is my special interest and I have been in it for years. I know quite a bit about it.
But I have also been in algebra one since year one and am now a senior.

please do not use math to determine ability. If it did then I would be worthless.

I do agree that proper training is needed, but a few things to think about for ya.

The idea of a child being an amateur psychologist is off-putting. However, if you are talking about an older child mentoring a younger one, especially someone who has been there and can offer assistance, I'm all for it.

For me, my best therapists have always been of the four-footed variety-my cats!

Can you imagine Lucy as a therapist for Charlie Brown?

They same character that verbally and physically abused Charlie Brown and her little brother?

THAT is the kind of "therapist" I imagine the OPs proposal would end up with -- abusive bullies beating on weaker kids and claiming that it's a form of "therapy".

Friends is what you're talking about here. This is a major role of friendship, especially during childhood. In fact, I did this with kids I was only somewhat acquainted with. When I was thirteen, a girl and I talked about her parents' divorce and her growing dislike for socializing. A year later, I came into contact with the class bully from when I was a little kid and she opened up about her low self-esteem. I imagine that being able to talk about it was therapeutic for them, even though their problems weren't similar to mine. I could still look at the problem from the perspective of a child and offer sympathy. So I don't think that we need underage therapists, but this is one of the reasons why friendships are so important for kids and adolescents.

That said, if one of my friends had cried about not being able to watch TV or having a curfew, I would've laughed in their face. Even at the age of nine, that would've appeared petty and ridiculous in light of the stuff that we talked about among ourselves.

What about issues that are inappropriate for children, such as molestation by adults? Surely these will come up during therapy.

Ok, using tobacco, alcohol and drugs is not how responsible adults deal with their problems.

So a child not being able to access these things does not mean that they have no way to cope. Or that adults have magic ways of absolving their problems that children have no access to.

Adults can help children find perspective.

Yes it is stupid to be upset about not being allowed more tv time. An adult can help a child learn to reason that you can't have everything you want now and that boundaries are there for a reason. Learning self discipline at a young age will help the child into adulthood where it's not too much tv they have to manage, but how to not spend all their money so that they can afford rent.

Adults offer guidance. I'm sorry that the adults in your youth failed you. Of course not all adults are good teachers or role models, but a good adult therapist can help a child.

For many years, NZ has had Youthline, a peer support phone service where young people can phone and talk to other young people, and it has been very successful. Trained supervision is available as support for the peer volunteers who receive the calls.

We also have Childline, not a peer support service but one that children can call to talk about their worries to trained adults.

Both are free and confidential, run well and get funding some government and private foundations that make charitable grants to public service organisations.

They do a terrific job.

Child labor law

Compulsory school law

Adults have been children before

Children have not been adults before.

I said in my first post that there would be an adult monitor keeping track of the session, and he/she would receive training on red flags to watch out for. As well as barge in if the session turned abusive. Then again, adult therapists can be just as abusive, if not more so, as child/teen therapists. Only the patient will be up against someone their age, rather than an authority figure who's on their parents' side.

Drop the health propaganda! You don't understand my situation any more than my therapist did. Alcohol lifted me out of depression in the nick of time, and kept me from self-harming or worse. When I started using alcohol, at age 12, I was going though such a horrible depression, that I once cried all day nonstop! Do you know what caused it? Therapy! Do you know what stopped it? Jack Daniels.

I have a whole lot more respect for New Zealand now. I read that it's the world's least corrupt country. I still say that there should be a Childline with child therapists. With enough training, it can be done.

Your argument doesn't hold water. Because 90% of NT adults, and 99.9% of NT parents have no memory of how unpleasant and disempowering childhood is. They don't understand what it's like to go to bed when they're not tired, what it's like to panic when they get a bad grade because they'll be severely punished for it, what it's like to have a curfew, or what it's like to not be able to smoke or drink. So it's hard to take seriously the "advice" (read: platitudes) of someone who doesn't understand what you're going through. It's like expecting Jeff Bezos (CEO of Amazon) to understand what it's like to be work in a warehouse.

Speaking of warehouses, I volunteer in a food bank. Most of the time, you have to be 16+, because of the lifting involved, but on select days, they allow kids, stationed in their own area doing a simple tasks. I happened to volunteer on one of those days. Before everyone started working, an employee gave a speech, something like this: "By coming here, you are not just being good. You are helping kids just like yourself. How nice is that?" Nice indeed. So why can't we apply the "kids helping kids" model to therapy? It wouldn't be too hard to get it past child labor laws, even, because it's just two people talking to each other.

I like the idea of an older child helping a younger child. I also like the idea of a child having a good therapist who actually listens. I don't like the idea of children having to miss their favourite TV shows. Perhaps children can be doing something more constructive when their favourite TV shows aren't on.