You may choose to take your child to a child psychologist for a wide range of reasons, such as the child having struggles in school, difficulties with you and your spouse, or having gone through some sort of trauma. One or more sessions with this expert can help your child move through whatever has been bothering him or her and, hopefully, put the issue behind. While you won't necessarily be present for the counseling session, you can support your child in a wide range of ways. It's important to know what you should do and what you shouldn't do in order to provide this support.

Don't: Grill The Child About The Session

It's natural to be curious about how the session went and what information was divulged, but you shouldn't interrogate your child about what he or she said. Psychology sessions are confidential; the psychologist won't talk to you in detail about the session, so you should respect this confidentiality by not asking your child questions. Keeping your distance in this manner is an ideal way to show support — and, if your child feels that you won't be asking questions, he or she may choose to open up more in the sessions.

Do: Ask If There's Something You Can Do

Even if you don't know exactly what has taken place in the session with the child psychologist, you can gently ask your child if there's something that you can do to support him or her. For example, the child may simply indicate that he or she needs some space or that he or she needs you to be a little more patient as an issue is dealt with. You can also think about contacting the psychologist to ask what you can do to support the child.

Do: Get Your Own Counseling

In many scenarios, an issue with your child may be at least partly due to your behavior. It's not fair to have your child attend counseling sessions and be expected to change but for you to avoid taking a similar path. If your child is seeing a psychologist, consider booking some sessions for yourself, too. The child psychologist will be able to recommend a professional for you to visit. This way, each of you will be "doing your work" to improve the situation, which is especially important if your relationship is currently strained. Your child will see that you're working on yourself and will appreciate it, too.