Preparation of Children for Psychotherapy Through Videotaped Modeling

I examined the effect of preparing child clients for psychotherapy using a modeling videotape and also studied the effect of adding narration to the procedure. Participants were thirty-six 6- to 13-year-olds who were referred for psychotherapy. The children were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: modeling videotape with narration, modeling videotape: without narration, and control. Results indicated that both groups of prepared clients had a greater understanding of therapy. However, there were no differences among conditions in these clients' ability to adapt to the client role, on any of the outcome measures. I compare the results of this investigation with those of other relevant studies and offer suggestions as to how pretherapy preparation procedures may be improved.