Study On The Effectiveness Of The Mutual Storytelling Therapy On Children With Behavioral Disorders

Children Behavioral Problems are one of the common problems among children, represented with maladjustment in intercourse, withdraw and over-action etc. The misbehaviors directly lead to the maladjustment in learning and social intercourse of children, which will result in further handicapping children's mental development Differing from traditional psychoanalysis and behavioral therapy, the Mutual-Storytelling Technique abandons structured reinforcing and punishing of behavioral therapy and profound counseling dialogue of psychoanalysis, while adopts a more friendly conversational style according to children's cognition regulatbn. When led by the therapist to tell story, children could use "metaphor" to safely express their concern, anxiety, worry and conflict and release their depression. In another side, the therapist could use this media to better explore children's problems and to transfer more active, healthier ways and attitudes through retelling children's story. The therapist together with the child, explores the life style, family constellation and interacting style in a relaxing, equal atmosphere, which are the key emphases of Adlerian Children Therapy.During the past 3 months, I treated 8 children with some behavioral problems for 8 times separately, with duration of about 40-50 minutes per time. After the treatment the 8 children got significant improvement in CBCL and TRF compared with those children in control group. In CBCL, children had lower scores in withdraw, somatic complaints, anxious/depressed, attention problems, delinquent behavior and total problems; In TRF, children got lower scores in aggression, anxious/depressed, intemalizing, externalizing and total problems. Besides, those who took the MST demonstrated more positive factors in their stories, and the parents/teachers admitted that they have some improvements in their daily life. All these proved that MST have both effects in improving children's daily behavior (scored by their parents/teachers) and in the stories. The result indicated that MST could have positive effect on children's behavioral problems in the circumstance of Adlerian environment.