Have you ever seen video footage of your family playing with your children, checking homework or having dinner? Have you been filmed in other situations?

If so, you may have noticed how strange and enlightening it feels to watch yourself and those around you from the outside. When we are watching the film, we can pay much more attention to the other person than when we are present in the situation, where time is pressing, dinner is running out, one of the children is crying and the doorbell is ringing.

From the outside, in calm conditions, you can observe details on the recording that are not visible in the rush of everyday life. You can rewind the recording, revisit a detail, and observe the whole scene from a different perspective than when you were present in the situation being recorded.

The method was originally developed by social workers to improve parent-child relationships and is still a classic application of video training. VIG is particularly effective in cases of broken relationships, difficult parenting situations, family tensions or the problematic behavior of the child.

The process: the video guider makes short video recordings of everyday situations in the family home and then analyzes them in terms of the problem to be solved. He or she looks for communication elements that work well in the relationship, and then reviews and discusses the selected situations with the parents. Depending on the depth of the problem, several recordings and discussions will follow, encouraging parents to more often use existing behavioral elements that improve their relationship. Usually, after 3-5 sessions, the family will notice a change: a more joyful, harmonious relationship between family members.

 THE METHOD CAN BE USED SUCCESSFULLY IN CASES WHERE:

• the child’s behavior causes problems for the parents (e.g. refusal to go to bed, to eat, to school, tantrums, aggressive behavior, excessive mobility, crying);
• there is constant fighting in the family;
• they feel that parents and children do not understand each other;
• the parent feels overburdened by child-rearing;
• school problems are so severe that parents are considering changing schools;
• the relationship and the situation have deteriorated to the point where it is felt that the child would be better off outside the family;
• the child has recently entered the family (through adoption, parents remarrying, foster care);
• there are difficulties in caring for a chronically ill or disabled child;
• and of course many other problematic situations.