Role Therapist Working Single Parent Families

Therapist to Single-Parents

Therapists serve many roles in their careers. However, when working with single-parent families, that role gets multiplied. When working with single parents, therapists need to be aware of all of the resources available to the parent and to the children (Kazdin, Whitley, & Marciano, 2006). The therapist needs to be a source of information. They need to be prepared with financial assistance information, with psychological skills for talking to both the parent and the children, and they also need to be aware of the community that the single parent is living in (Weltner, 2004). A therapist wears enough hats as it is, but when working with single-parent families this role becomes all that more important as they become the parent's complete support system.

Single-parent families are not as financially stable as those families that have two parents contributing to everything (Weltner, 2004). Having two incomes may sometimes not feel like enough -- one income can seem impossible to raise children with. As a therapist, one has to be able to teach the single parent how to manage a household on one income. This includes exposing their patient to the many resources that the government has to offer families in need. A therapist's role includes being familiar with public policy so that they may serve as advocates for their clients (Weltner, 2004). Any service that the therapist does not directly provide themselves, still need to be familiar to the therapist. They need to be able to refer their single-parent clients to the appropriate resources whenever necessary.

Therapists also serve as liaisons between the client's family's community and the services that their particular venue offers. This enables them to provide outside resources that best suit their clients' needs. In order to properly handle situations that may arise in the single-parent families, the therapist needs to be able to handle any community issue that may affect the well-being of the parent and the children (Kazdin, Whitley, & Marciano, 2006). In neighborhoods where crime, drugs, and violence are recurring problems, the therapist needs to be prepared to assist the children and the parent in getting them either information about safer alternatives or the therapist needs to be prepared to enter these neighborhoods themselves (Weltner, 2004). Becoming familiar with their patient's environment allows a therapist to better communicate with the parent and the children.

A therapist's role entails counseling. This becomes even more essential in situations where both the parent and the children may be adjusting to a new life. If children have grown up with both parents and then suddenly lose one, their sense of stability is shattered and their safety net is no longer in existence. The therapist then needs to serve as a psychological bandage for both the children who are getting used to the idea of only having one parent around, and the parent needs to also be counseled as their life has changed dramatically as well (Kazdin, Whitley, & Marciano, 2006). A therapist to a single-parent family is the only stable entity that they have chosen to stay constant in their lives. Any deviation from a normal scheduled interaction between parent, children, and therapist, may cause more harm than good. That is, a therapist needs to be prepared to answer at all times, and be prepared for any emotional mediation between all parties involved.