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This clinically focused article offers cognitive behavior therapists recommendations and cautionary tales for using the Socratic method when working with children. The importance of the therapeutic relationship in combination with developmental considerations is discussed. The use of Socratic method in various cognitive behavioral modules is illustrated by means of case examples. Dialogues provide examples of how the cognitive specificity hypothesis and downward arrow technique can be used to support young clients in eliciting negative automatic thoughts. The importance of pacing, the mixing of closed and open-ended questions, and behavioral experiments to aid cognitive restructuring are also highlighted through extracts from clinical conversations. Finally, the article emphasizes that the purpose of the Socratic method is to broaden thinking and to access new knowledge rather than just giving young clients new thoughts and problem solving strategies.
Keywords: child; cognitive behavioral therapy; Socratic questions; developmental considerations
"Wonder is the beginning of wisdom."
-Socrates
Socratic questions own a central place in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) with youth. Ideally, this practice ignites children's curiosity and wonder. However, applying Socratic questions in demanding clinical settings is a complex skillset. Clinical experience reveals that sometimes the Socratic process goes well and at other times results are not quite so good. This clinically focused article offers cognitive behavioral therapists recommendations and cautionary tales for using Socratic methods with young clients.
After a brief review of Socratic questioning, the importance of juxtaposing Socratic questions with specific relationship-enhancing variables is discussed. Because Socratic questioning with children and adolescents is different from Socratic questioning with adults, dealing with developmental vicissitudes is addressed. The article proceeds with pointers and red flags for Socratic questioning with youth in various CBT modules. More specifically, productive and unproductive applications of Socratic questioning in target monitoring, cognitive restructuring, and behavioral experimentation are illustrated. Finally, the article concludes with a synthesis of the guideposts and caveats in Socratic questioning with youth.
Socratic QueStioning DefineD
"The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms."
-Socrates
The Socratic method is based on the work of the ancient philosopher Socrates (Overholser, 2010) who posited that personal truths are learned best through earnest self-discovery. Socratic methods include but are not limited to systematic questioning, inductive reasoning, and universal definitions (Overholser, 2010, 2011, 2013). In...