Questions of guidance and supervision at the beginning of psychotherapy in children and adolescents.

Firstly, the significance of the establishment of a positive working alliance in children and adolescents at the beginning of a potential psychotherapy is described. Secondly, questions of supervision by means of psychodramatic treatment of transitional situations are discussed. (1) Children and adolescents are mostly presented by the parents and initially have no or hardly any motivation for psychotherapy. The author therefore recommends inter alia a ten-wish phantasy game at the first encounter with the child or adolescent irrespective of the reason for presentation by the parents. The possibility of being able to express ten wishes or changes which a fairy or a magician would fulfill for the child encourages the patient to name the most diverse levels and dimensions of his/her psychological reality and to reflect it in the form of wishes. The therapist thus provides space for yearnings and compensatory 'counterworlds', frequently leading to a positive contact in a subsequent dialog about the wishes. (2) In training, the young psychotherapist is often not aware of his transference and countertransference relationship. Psychodramatic role play in a supervised colleague group or in the development of a psychodramatic 'family sculpture' may frequently clarify the situation quickly by own experience and by 'psychodramatic reflection technique'.