The advice was prepared by the therapist of our Headquarters and the psychological center “Bez paniky” Daria Selivanova. If you require psychological support, call the hotline at 0 800 305 007.
Provide a child with physical contact
If a child “sticks to your body” – it does everything right. Try to hug, pet, tickle and stay physically close to it as often as possible.
Explain your condition to the child
Now you may feel irritated when interacting with a child. This is normal. It is trying to get an emotional resource from you that may not be available at the moment. Explain your condition. Tell that you are tired, that you are scared, that you are exhausted. Make it clear what affects your condition. Explain that it’s not a child’s fault.
Play the engineering game
Support and encourage your child to build houses, shelters, or just crawl under a blanket. Children, as before, are in dire need of a safe space in which they can feel more comfortable and calm. If it is not possible to build it physically, help the child to imagine the safe place. Let it tell you what is there and how it is arranged, what it is, where it is, or if anyone else lives there.
Draw something that frightens the child and does not make it feel safe
Don’t be afraid that the picture may be bloody or horrible. Let the child’s experiences be better expressed on paper than in his or her memory. And then these drawings can be placed in a safe, where its fears will be stored.
Make an amulet / bracelet and put it on your child or yourself and your child
Let it be a piece of clothing, if there is nothing else at hand. It can be string, rope, lace. Say that he will remind the child that you are close, even if you are physically in another place at the moment.
Find someone for a child to take care of
It could be a little brother / sister, a neighbor’s child or a toy. If it is a toy, it can also be placed in a safe place, in a shelter.
Tell your child about your feelings for her
Tell about how much you love it. How happy are you to be together. How strong the child is and how it will definitely overcome difficulties. Tell that you will be there and do everything to protect it. The fact that even if you quarrel, swear or take offense, you still love it, that sometimes you forget to talk these things because of other daily tasks, but that does not mean that you do not love it. It is very important for children to know this.
