Consistency
Predictability of responses, which tells a child what they can expect.
How it shows up
It isn’t strictness. It is that the same rule applies on Monday and on Friday, when you’re rested and when you’re not. Children don’t test boundaries because they’re naughty, but because they’re checking whether the boundaries hold.
What we do with it in therapy
We set fewer rules and make sure the ones that remain really apply. Three consistent agreements are worth more than ten occasional ones.
See also
Decision fatigue
A decline in the quality of decisions after a long run of choices.
Emotional literacy
The ability to recognise, name and express feelings — your own and other people's.
The family as a system
A view in which one member's symptom says something about the balance of the whole, not only about them.
