Should I paying for a therepist to learn on my child?

One of my kids need therapy. I have a friend who is new in this field. She has only been working a few years but with older children who have different needs then my child does. She recently took 2 courses in a certain method and wanted to try them out on my kid and she wants to get experiance with younger children. She gave me the assessment session free and she wants to charge me a minamal fee about 30% of the going fee. I feel like I am paying someone to learn on my child. My child is extreemly behind in this area. She has no experiance with this problem. We have been getting a few funded sessions through a different therapist but we are now taking a couple months break as the funding run out. We are tight on money. I am debating whether to use my friend who is a begginer or get someone very experianced for less sessions but we may get further. Is it bad to use a friend?

Annoynymous in case my friend is on imamother.

Platinum Member Joined: Oct 14 2009 Posts: 5894

I have no idea what kind of therapy your kid needs, so I can only give my opinion on the vague situation described.

If she is trained and certified in the kind of therapy that your child needs, I think it's very kind of her to offer you such a big break in the fee. When you get a therapist through an agency, there is no guarantee that they're experienced in the exact methods your child needs. This is the way the professional therapy world works; you get your education and training and then you learn with your experiences, researching new techniques as new needs arise. If she's a talented therapist, her skills should be able to adapt to the new methods, whereas a less talented person would probably be blah in any situation.

You need to do what's best for your child within your means. So if you think s/he would do better with someone else, that's your call. All I'm saying is I think it's a little dramatic to see this as "paying for a therapist to learn on your child." The therapist would be providing a service to you at a fraction of its regular cost. It's not like she's trying to develop her own new methodology and wants to use your kid for her experiment.

If she is your friend you should not have her do it, no matter what. Depending what profession she is in it may actually be unethical for her to treat your child. Additionally, if you are not happy with the results your friendship will be affected.

Platinum Member Joined: May 06 2007 Posts: 8521

I think that it depends on the therapy. If it's psychotherapy, then definitely not, you need someone experienced. If it's speech therapy, where the therapist plays with your child and does some oral motor planning, it's different.

The former, I think is inappropriate, esp. because she is your friend and a bad or ineffective therapist is worse than none at all. But a speech therapist, if you're not getting other services, then one on one time with a child is always a good thing and you can think of it as a cheap session.

So, what therapy does your child need?
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Just Plain Frum!

Gold Member Joined: Jan 07 2009 Posts: 1778