THE FOOD ALLERGY COUNSELOR - Your Allergy Psychosocial Resource Hub
  • Home
  • Counselor Directory
  • Blog
  • Webinars
  • Podcast
  • Worksheets/Forms
  • Psychosocial Resources
  • FAC Members/FABHN
  • Allergy Counseling Niche Info
    • Allergy Counseling Info for Patients
    • Allergy Counseling Info for Therapy Providers
    • Allergy Counseling Info for Allergists
  • Consulting Services
  • About
    • The Food Allergy Counselor, Inc.
    • Founder, Tamara Hubbard, LCPC
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms & Conditions of Use
  • Contact

4 Things Counselors Should Know About Food Allergies (Part 4)

11/4/2018

0 Comments

 
(If you're reading this, you've likely already read Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 of the "4 Things Counselors Should Know About Food Allergies" series.  If not, I'd suggest you read those first).

​In the previous three posts, I covered topics focused on the many layers of food allergy-related anxiety and fear, food labeling concerns, and the lack of support that many find from schools and family. The final post in this series has to do with the counseling considerations that counseling professionals should be aware of when working with clients managing food allergies. 
​
​#4 - A Collaborative Team Approach Is Crucial....
​​​And Be Mindful With Exposure Therapy Techniques 
​
Picture
Photo Credit: Pixababy (AR130405)

A Collaborative Team Approach is Crucial
Ideally, those diagnosed with food allergies would routinely see their allergist, as well as their GP doctor, but they would also be given referrals to allied healthcare professionals in case they may be useful. This list might include counseling professionals, dietitians, dermatologists, gastroenterologists, and even educational consultants w/food allergy knowledge.

Some larger medical hospitals and institutions already take a true collaborative team approach within their food allergy departments, including having a counseling professional on staff. However, you'll typically be working with food allergic clients in your own office and therefore, will need to create your own collaborative team approach with your client's medical doctors and other allied healthcare professionals.

Food allergic clients typically visit their allergist annually (or more often, if necessary). Allergists will determine or confirm food allergy diagnoses, and help their clients establish emergency action plans and safety guidelines. Therefore, at the very least,  you'll want to connect with your food allergic client's allergist for continuity of care if the client allows. Sometimes perceptions and statistics don't align when it comes to evaluating risk factors. Therefore, especially if you're not well-versed in food allergies, being able to reach out to their allergist will prove useful in situations where you may want to clarify the likelihood of reactions or other food allergy facts, as they pertain specifically to your client. Additionally, the allergist will find it useful knowing what may be causing the client increased food allergy fears, anxiety, or emotional distress, as well as the progress being made and overall goals for counseling. 


A Few Words on Specific Counseling Concepts and Goals
While exposure therapy type of techniques may benefit many clients presenting with specific fears and anxiety, even those with food allergies, you'll need to be mindful of one very important point: The goal of counseling should never be to work up to exposing the person to their allergen in order to eliminate food allergy fears! Any allergen exposure needs to be determined by the client and their allergist together, not the counselor. After all, the core of food allergies lies within the medical realm.

With that being said, a counselor can still be very helpful in guiding the client through the progression of food allergy appointments, testing, treatments, and fears. For those managing food allergies, appointments can include skin tests, blood draws, and even food challenges, where people actually ingest their allergen if deemed appropriate (this is typically based on lab results and determined by the allergist). Many, especially kids, may have fears or anxiety about these appointments, so helping them develop coping strategies and tools to navigate these scenarios is a great counseling goal. 

Clients managing food allergies would benefit from Cognitive Behavioral (CBT) work, which will help them identify and manage stress, acknowledge unhealthy (and healthy) thoughts and behaviors that may play a role, and learn how to challenge them and establish new ones. However, CBT isn't the only type of counseling that will help clients with food allergies. A variety of counseling theories and techniques may be useful in working with food allergies, as long as they're proving effective with the client.

Here is a sampling of other clinical counseling goals you may establish when working with food allergic clients (goals will vary widely depending on the client): 

Kids: 
  1. Help the child learn how to talk about their food allergies with friends, and advocate for their own needs among peers and even adults, such as teachers
  2. Work through specific anxieties, fears, and extreme avoidance behaviors relating to their food allergies
  3. Navigate various school and social scenarios (i.e. discussing, preparing, and role-playing to help the child gain confidence). Be mindful that the child (and even the parents) may feel excluded or bullied at times, but also be looking for positive supportive scenarios, too. 
  4. Help kids (and parents) process feelings after anaphylactic reactions, as this may result in new or renewed excessive anxieties, fears or other feelings and behaviors​

Older Kids/Teens (topics in addition to those listed above):​
  1. Learn how to manage their own food allergy precautions so that they can gain increased independence from parents
  2. Address how food allergies impact dating, kissing, group outings without adults, employment/jobs, traveling with friends, going to college, etc.

Parents:
  1. Help parents educate their child on food allergies in an age-appropriate manner (i.e. choosing terminology that isn't too scary for each age, but prepares them)
  2. Guide parents on how to manage their own feelings about food allergies, and educate them on how those feelings may impact how their child feels about his/her own food allergies. Help them understand the typical thoughts and feelings associated with food allergies in order to validate their own.
  3. Find support networks and help them establish self-care routines
  4. Deal with stress/burnout from managing food allergies
  5. Navigate the family system with food allergies (i.e. siblings without food allergies; family members managing different food allergies; family members not respecting food allergy protocols, etc)
  6. Move through the stages of development and still allowing their kids to meet typical developmental milestones while living with food allergies (i.e. taking steps towards giving teens more independence)​

FINAL THOUGHTS......
Living with food allergies can be an extremely emotional experience, so there will be many opportunities where you'll need to help the client reality test to find a balance between emotions and facts. Balance is a key necessity for living with food allergies, since it's a marathon and not a sprint. Balance of emotions, balance of facts, balance of coping strategies. As food allergies threaten to throw that balance off kilter, sometimes on a daily basis, it's crucial to think about the bigger picture when working with food allergic clients. The work will be hard and gut-wrenching at times, but extremely rewarding, especially when you see a child or its family learning how to live an empowered life with food allergies as a direct result of the work you've done together. ​
If you're working with a client who has food allergies and feel you need more information to educate yourself, check out the following resources, in addition to the links within this post: ​
  • FARE's "Food For Thought" video series ​
  • Dr. Ruchi Gupta's "Quality of Life" research results (SOAAR)
  • Study: Effects of Parental Anxiety Around Food Allergies (Food Allergy Canada, February 2018)
  • Challenges of Food Allergies Connected to Personality Traits for the First Time (Science Daily, March 2018)
  • Managing Food Allergies in Schools: Guidance for Parents (FARE)
  • Food Allergy Kids - Interview with Linda Herbert, PhD (Part 1)  & Nurturing the Emotions of Our School-Aged Years (Part 2) (Parenting Food Allergies Podcast, January 2017)
  • From Doubt to Confidence: Exploring Vulnerability & Food Allergies (Exploring FA Families podcast, May 2020)

If you're a licensed behavioral healthcare provider who works with those managing food allergies, reach out via the "Contact Form" to express interest in connecting with others within this niche, or for consideration to be listed in the Food Allergy Counselor Directory. ​​​​​​
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.


    Follow FAC on Twitter or Instagram, or on Facebook on the Food Allergy Counselor Directory  page to get updates on the FAC Directory, blog or resources. And connect with FAC creator Tamara on Twitter or Instagram!

    Picture
    Subscribe here to receive weekly allergy life tips and/or insights into the allergy counseling niche

    Picture
    Listen to & subscribe to the Exploring Food Allergy Families podcast!

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    July 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    February 2021
    July 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018


    Categories

    All
    4 Things Series
    ACT Skills
    Adult Allergies
    Advocacy
    Allergy Anxiety Tools
    Allergy Dads
    Allergy Education
    Allergy Informed Therapists
    Allergy Moms
    Allergy Tools
    Anaphylaxis
    Anxiety
    Building Confidence
    CBT
    Community
    Compassion & Self Compassion
    Coping
    Coronavirus Anxiety
    Counseling
    Emotions
    Empowerment
    FAAW
    Family
    Fears
    Food Allergy Management
    Food Allergy Research
    Food Allergy Worksheets
    Guest Bloggers
    Guilt
    Kids
    Mindfulness
    Mindset
    OIT & OFC
    Parenting
    Personal Stories
    Podcast
    Podcast & Webinars
    Relationships
    Resilience
    Siblings
    Stress Management
    Support Groups
    Survey Results
    Teen Allergies
    Treatment
    Updates Or News


    Picture
    Don't miss a blog post! Subscribe below: 

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    Subscribe to FAC via reader

FAC Resources

FAC Directory
FAC Blog
​
FA Webinars & Discussions
Exploring FA Families Podcast
​Therapy Worksheets
​​Sign up for FAC emails!

For THERAPY Providers

FAC Membership & FABHN​
Allergy Psychosocial Intake Forms
Contact The FAC
ALLERGY COUNSELING 
Patient/Community Info
Therapy Provider Info
Allergists/Healthcare Info

About

The FAC, Inc.
FAC Founder
Consulting & Webinars
Terms of Use
Privacy Policy
Copyright © 2018-2023 The Food Allergy Counselor, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Photo used under Creative Commons from rawpixel.com
  • Home
  • Counselor Directory
  • Blog
  • Webinars
  • Podcast
  • Worksheets/Forms
  • Psychosocial Resources
  • FAC Members/FABHN
  • Allergy Counseling Niche Info
    • Allergy Counseling Info for Patients
    • Allergy Counseling Info for Therapy Providers
    • Allergy Counseling Info for Allergists
  • Consulting Services
  • About
    • The Food Allergy Counselor, Inc.
    • Founder, Tamara Hubbard, LCPC
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms & Conditions of Use
  • Contact