Oxford Diploma : Counselling young children with depression

November 2026 - Workbook added:

1. Child anxiety

2. Child depression

3. Differences between normal sadness and clinical depression

4. Differences between ordinary worry, stress, and anxiety

5. Daily functioning as a sign of emotional difficulty

6. School attendance and school refusal

7. Academic decline

8. Social withdrawal

9. Loss of interest in activities

10. Negative self-talk

11. Somatic complaints such as headaches and tummy aches

12. Recognising changes from a child’s usual baseline

13. Assessment of overlapping issues such as ADHD and learning difficulties

14. Counselling for children

15. CBT-informed work with children

16. Play therapy

17. Art-based approaches with children

18. Externalising anxious or self-critical thoughts

19. Parenting responses to children’s distress

20. Routines and consistency at home

21. Reassurance-seeking and boundaries

22. Emotional regulation

23. Emotional dysregulation

24. The “river of well-being” model

25. Chaos and rigidity as states of dysregulation

26. Emotional brain and reasoning brain

27. Co-regulation

28. Adult self-regulation

29. Dual attention

30. Body awareness

31. Movement and play in regulation

32. Validation before reasoning

33. Limit-setting and safety

34. The ACT method

35. Decision-making and problem-solving skills in children

36. The SIFT framework: sensations, images, feelings, thoughts

37. Self-care toolboxes for children

38. Creativity and mental health

39. Art as non-verbal expression

40. Visual art, writing, music, movement, and performance

41. Art galleries and museums as reflective spaces

42. Slow looking

43. Curiosity and imagination

44. Social connection through the arts

45. Accessibility in arts participation

46. Process versus end product in creative work

47. Colouring, drawing, sketching, and journalling

48. Arts engagement versus art therapy

49. Community mental health resources

50. Social prescribing and arts prescribing

51. AI chatbots and mental health advice

52. Teenagers seeking mental health support from AI

53. Emotional persuasiveness of AI

54. AI mimicking empathy

55. Co-prompting with parents

56. AI safety conversations in families

57. Adolescence as a developmental stage

58. Vulnerability of adolescents to persuasive technologies

59. Relational AI

60. Perceived accuracy of AI outputs

61. AI and misinformation in mental health

62. AI replacing human support

63. Privacy and psychological data

64. Behavioural profiling

65. Targeted advertising and exploitative personalisation

66. AI-generated misuse of likeness

67. Cyberbullying and non-consensual generated content

68. AI in education

69. AI as supplement versus replacement

70. AI literacy

71. Organisational responsibility and safeguarding

72. Legal and ethical concerns around adolescent AI use

February 2025

• Application of 50 counselling skills added.

Counseling young people with depression requires special considerations and approaches that differ from those used with adults. Here are some key aspects that make it unique , all of which are covered on this course:

• Developmental Understanding

• Family Involvement

• Building Trust and Rapport

• School Collaboration

• Legal and Ethical Considerations

• Technology and Social Media

• Prevention and Early Intervention

• Stigma and Awareness

• Integrating Play and Creativity

• Focus on Strengths and Potential

All of the above topics are covered plus:

• Age-appropriate interventions

• Challenges faced

• How these challenges may be addressed

And that is just the first section of the course!

The second section includes:

• Intro

• Cognitive behavioural therapy

• Play therapy

• Art therapy

• Narrative therapy

• Solution focused brief therapy (a therapeutic approach that emphasizes finding solutions in the present time and exploring one's hopes for the future, rather than focusing on past problems. )

• Family therapy

• Mindfulness and relaxation techniques

• Developmental understanding

• Emotion identification

• Monitoring and adaptation

• Use of technology

• How can a child identify emotions

• Parental support

• The listening game

• Colouring mindfully

• Bubble breathing

But the above only details the lectures.

In addition to lectures there are Case Studies + Discussion Questions. The aim of the Discussion Questions is...to encourage discussion! That means a heavy emphasis is placed on posting in the Q/A .

Accreditation

The Oxford Diploma is accredited by the Oxford School of Learning. To achieve the Diploma all the homework, all the Case Studies have to be done and discussed. Then, if the student feels that s/he meets the criteria for the Diploma a statement is made in the Q/A.

Then INDEPENDENT ASSESSORS come in and assess the claim.

Therefore everyone who achieves the Diploma has really worked hard, learned a lot, shared a lot.

That's why it is a Diploma of Achievement - fewer than 30 out of 243,000 students have achieved it!