Counseling families with a hearing-impaired child.

Parents are the linchpin of the family, and counseling for the young, newly diagnosed child with a hearing impairment needs to be directed at them. The operative rule for the counseling model described in this article is that feelings are neither good nor bad; they just are, and they need acknowledgment and acceptance, never judgment. Behavior can be judged as to whether or not it is productive, but parents never have to be responsible for how they feel. Armed with this nonjudgmental attitude toward emotions, the clinician can elicit them by empathetic listening.