Atlas›Domain XIV · Western esoteric, divinatory & new spiritual movements›Guide 149
Guide XIV-149

Indigo and crystal children

Nancy Ann Tappe, Lee Carroll, Jan Tober, Doreen Virtue1982
A 36 · L 55 · M 913 interventions in the Trinity explorer
Client cardCompare
[source: …] where a claim comes from[uncertain] not confirmed in a primary source[synthesis] the writer's reconstruction

1. Introduction

Version followed: the Indigo concept as Nancy Ann Tappe (Understanding Your Life Thru Color, 1986, after a comb-bound 1982 edition) and Lee Carroll and Jan Tober (The Indigo Children, 1999) set it out, with Doreen Virtue's parenting book The Care and Feeding of Indigo Children (2001) and her Crystal Children extension (The Crystal Children, Hay House, 2003). Where these authors differ (for example on whether the children's origin is evolutionary, interdimensional or extraterrestrial), the difference is named. [source: Whedon 2004; Virtue 2003 publisher extract; Wikipedia, uncertain: secondary, unverified]

What it is. Indigo and crystal children are not a therapy and not an organisation with members. They are labels from the New Age milieu that describe a generation of children as spiritually, psychically or developmentally advanced. Tappe, who described herself as perceiving people's “life colours” (aura colours said to stay constant across a lifetime), reported seeing a new indigo colour in children and sorted them into four sub-types (Artist, Conceptualist, Humanist, Inter-planetarian). Carroll, who channels an entity he calls Kryon, and Tober, an intuitive counsellor and Reiki Master, popularised the label in 1999 with trait lists and parenting advice. Virtue, a counselling psychologist by training who taught “angel therapy”, added the Crystal Children: born from about 1995, said to be calmer than Indigos, with large intense eyes, a strong bond with nature, animals and crystals, and a tendency to talk late and to communicate by telepathy, song or self-made signs. [source: Whedon 2004; Virtue 2003 extract]

Claimed traits. In the primary literature, Indigos are emotionally sensitive, creative, strong-willed, resistant to authority and to guilt- or fear-based discipline, sometimes act as if they are “royalty”, and may report seeing auras, talking with non-human beings or remembering past lives; school difficulty and ADD/ADHD diagnoses are presented as common. Their stated purpose is to reform education, government, health care and the environment. [source: Whedon 2004] These are beliefs held within the current; no empirical support has been shown for the category or its psychic claims (a research psychologist quoted in the New York Times in 2006 called it a sham without scientific backing). [source: Boing Boing 2006 summarising the NYT; Wikipedia, uncertain: secondary, unverified] Evidence status in one line: no controlled or diagnostic research supports Indigo or Crystal as a distinct kind of child; the trait lists are broad enough to fit most children. [source: Wikipedia summarising Barkley, uncertain: secondary, unverified]

How change is said to happen. In the authors' account, the child does not need correcting: adults need to recognise who the child is and change their parenting and schooling. Carroll, Tober and Virtue say many Indigos are wrongly diagnosed with ADD/ADHD and place the work of “care and feeding” on parents and schools instead of medication; Virtue recasts ADHD as “Attention Dialed into a Higher Dimension”. For Crystal Children she argues they are often misdiagnosed as autistic, asks why their differences should be pathologised, and warns that medication could dull their sensitivity; the same book carries a disclaimer telling readers to consult a physician. [source: Whedon 2004; Virtue 2003 extract]

The clinical point. The label can stand in place of assessment for ADHD, autism, speech and language delay, learning difficulties, hearing problems or trauma. Researchers have warned that the beliefs may lead parents to deny impairments, avoid established help, spend heavily on unhelpful services and hand children grandiose or frightening beliefs. [source: Waltz 2009 as summarised on Wikipedia, uncertain: secondary, unverified] A 2011 study found that parents of children with ADHD who used the Indigo label saw ADHD behaviour more positively and felt less frustration, though they still reported more negative emotion and conflict than parents of children without ADHD. [source: Lench, Levine and Whalen 2011 as summarised on Wikipedia, uncertain: secondary, unverified] The parents' hopes are real and often protective. The therapist's job is to honour the meaning while making sure the child is properly assessed and supported.

Who you will meet. (a) Parents who believe their child is Indigo or Crystal, often after a school complaint, a diagnosis or a suggested assessment; (b) adults born from the early 1980s who identify as Indigo and recount hard childhoods and school years (Singler's ethnography found this pattern, and found community members reinterpreting ADHD and autism through the concept); (c) family members, teachers or co-parents worried about a child. [source: Singler 2017 publisher page; Whedon 2004]

2. Framework

This is a belief framework, not a staged therapy, so there are no published phases, session counts or criteria for moving on. Two sequences matter.

The movement's own sequence (as its authors publish it). [source: Whedon 2004; Virtue 2003 extract]

  • Recognition: a parent meets the idea in books, talks, films, online material or a reader's or aura-reader's statement, and matches the child to trait lists or to aura colour (Tappe's method rests on her own colour perception).
  • Reframing: school trouble, defiance, late speech or social difference is read as a sign of gifts rather than of a condition.
  • Care and feeding: parenting changes the authors recommend (honesty, choices instead of orders, shared family decisions, joining in the child's interests, little punishment, much touch; Virtue adds meditation, exercise, time in nature, healthy food and angel work; Crystal parents are told to trust “mind-to-mind” communication).
  • Schooling and community: alternative schools (Montessori and Waldorf are named), Indigo camps (run 1999 to 2003), an Indigo school (opened 2002), workshops, conferences (the first international conference was held in Hawaii in 2002, with about 600 attending) and films. Whedon notes much of the work centres on the adults, including parents' own “inner child” work. [source: Whedon 2004; Wikipedia, uncertain: secondary, unverified]

The therapist's working sequence. [synthesis] Steps can overlap, and assessment referral should not wait on rapport if a child is struggling.

  1. Engage: hear the family's or adult's account in their own words (Intervention 4.1).
  2. Formulate culturally: core CFI, Spirituality module, School-Age module with parent addendum, Caregivers module, Informant version (4.2).
  3. Map hopes and fears about labels, diagnosis and medicine (4.3).
  4. Screen and refer for assessment where signs are present, framed as both-and (4.4, 4.5).
  5. Give the child a voice: assent and the child's own view (4.6).
  6. Plan: home and school support, decisions routed to the right professionals (4.7, 4.8).
  7. Check costs, dependency, online pressure and safeguarding (4.9 to 4.11).
  8. Review: is the child getting help, is distress lower, are family decisions being made together? Move on when the assessment question is settled (done, declined after informed discussion, or not indicated) and the family has a workable plan.

3. Guiding principles

  • Describe, do not adjudicate. Use the family's terms (Indigo, Crystal, aura colour, gifts) with gloss; neither affirm nor mock. Practical meaning: you can say what the label means to them without saying whether it is true. [synthesis; source for respect for religion and culture: APA Ethics Code, Principle E]
  • The label is not an assessment. Belief and diagnosis can coexist. Practical meaning: a child can be called Indigo at home and still be assessed for ADHD or autism. [synthesis, from the risks set out by Waltz 2009, uncertain: secondary, unverified]
  • Parents' hopes deserve respect. Critics note that “gifted” or “special” is easier to hear than “disorder” or a hint of poor parenting. Practical meaning: name the love and the wish to protect before raising concerns. [source: Wikipedia summarising R. T. Carroll and D. Cohen, uncertain: secondary, unverified]
  • The child's welfare and voice come first. Practical meaning: ask the child, at a level that fits their age, what they like, find hard and want. [source: CFI Module 9; synthesis]
  • Watch the burden of specialness. Whedon notes the weight of being cast as world-changers. Practical meaning: check whether the child feels they must be extraordinary, or fears failing a mission. [source: Whedon 2004]
  • Never advise on medicines. Practical meaning: explore fears about medication, then route every decision to the prescriber. [synthesis]
  • Stay in your role. The therapist does not identify children as Indigo or Crystal, read auras, or confirm psychic gifts. Practical meaning: if asked “Is my child Indigo?”, say it is not something you assess, and turn to what the family hopes the answer would give them. [synthesis; source for multiple relationships: APA Ethics Code 3.05]
  • Work within your competence. Practical meaning: refer for developmental, ADHD, autism, speech and language or hearing assessment; build spiritual competence through training and consultation (Vieten et al. 2013 spiritual and religious competencies, uncertain: not verified). [synthesis]
  • Safeguarding is a duty, not a debate about belief. Practical meaning: the trigger is harm or risk of harm to the child, never the belief itself. [synthesis]
  • Follow the money gently. Practical meaning: ask what books, readings, camps, courses and products cost the family and whether that strains them. [source for paid workshops: Whedon 2004]

4. Intervention inventory

The authors of the Indigo and Crystal literature publish parenting advice, not clinical procedures. The interventions below are the psychotherapist's work around the label. Except where a source is named, they are [synthesis]. Example language is illustrative throughout.

4.1 Client-led exploration of what the label means

  • Purpose / when: first contact with a parent or an adult who uses the words Indigo, Crystal, starseed child or similar; whenever the label comes up again.
  • Steps: (1) Ask how they first met the idea (book, talk, film, reader, online group, family member). (2) Ask what it explains for them: the child's behaviour, their own childhood, a sense of purpose. (3) Ask what it promises: protection, hope, a different school, freedom from blame. (4) Ask what it has changed in daily life (parenting, diet, schooling, contact with doctors). (5) Reflect back in their own words, with consent to keep using those words. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): “When you first read about Indigo children, what fitted? What did it make sense of?” “What would it mean for you if your son is an Indigo child, and what would it mean if he were not?” “Is it all right if I use your word, Crystal, when we talk about her?”
  • Watch for: relief at being understood (good sign); defensiveness that signals the family expects mockery; the label carrying shame about the parent's own childhood; the label being the only explanation they allow. It is working when the family can talk about the child's strengths and difficulties side by side.

4.2 Cultural Formulation Interview with the family

  • Purpose / when: early, to set the belief inside the family's wider cultural and spiritual life and to collect collateral information.
  • Steps: (1) Use the core CFI with the parent, or the CFI Informant version to gather the family's view of the child's problem. (2) Add Supplementary Module 5 (Spirituality, Religion, and Moral Traditions): how these commitments shape daily life, family practice and coping, and any conflict or discrimination linked to them. (3) Add Module 9 (School-Age Children and Adolescents) with the child or adolescent, covering their view of what is expected at their age, differences between home, school and peers, belonging, identity, stressors and supports; use its parent addendum on developmental and parenting norms. (4) Add Module 12 (Caregivers) for the parent's role, tasks, supports and view of the future. (5) Do not use the child as the source of family background details, as the module guide advises. (6) Paraphrase; do not read items out as a script if that feels stilted. [source: APA DSM-5 CFI Supplementary Modules]
  • Example language (illustrative): “How do your spiritual beliefs shape how you bring up your children day to day?” “Has anyone (family, school, doctors) reacted badly to your beliefs about her?” To a child: “What are you good at? What's the hardest part of school?”
  • Watch for: conflict between co-parents or with grandparents about the label; the family feeling judged by school or health services, which may make them avoid them; the child's view differing from the parent's. Working when you have a shared picture of the problem in the family's terms and in developmental terms.

4.3 Mapping hopes and fears about labels, diagnosis and medicine

  • Purpose / when: before any discussion of assessment; whenever a parent says the child is misdiagnosed or must not be drugged.
  • Steps: (1) Ask what a diagnosis would mean to them (blame, being a bad parent, a broken child, lifelong medicine). (2) Ask what the Indigo or Crystal idea protects (the child's dignity, hope, the parent's confidence). (3) Name the overlap: both the family and good clinicians want the child understood, not crushed. (4) Separate assessment (understanding needs) from treatment (choices made later with professionals). (5) Note the authors' stated concern about medication, then say clearly that medicine decisions sit with the prescriber and the family. [synthesis; Virtue's position from Virtue 2003 extract; parental motives from Wikipedia summarising R. T. Carroll and Cohen, uncertain: secondary, unverified]
  • Example language (illustrative): “It sounds as though a diagnosis would feel like someone saying something is wrong with him, when you see something right with him.” “An assessment doesn't decide anything about medicine. It tells us what he needs. What happens after that is up to you and his doctor.”
  • Watch for: fear that the therapist will side with school against them; the parent's own history of being labelled or medicated; misinformation about medicines (route to the prescriber, do not argue). Working when the parent can describe both hopes and worries without feeling cornered.

4.4 Screening for signs that need assessment

  • Purpose / when: throughout, and promptly when the account includes late or absent speech, loss of skills, marked social or communication difference, attention and impulse problems across settings, learning difficulty, hearing concerns, sleep or eating problems, self-harm, or signs of trauma.
  • Steps: (1) Ask concrete questions about milestones, speech, play, friendships, school reports, sleep and safety. (2) Ask whether school, a health visitor, a GP or paediatrician has raised concerns, and what happened. (3) Ask about stress at home, losses, conflict and any frightening experiences. (4) Note which signs point to which kind of assessment. (5) Do not diagnose; decide whether to refer. [synthesis] Note: the Crystal description includes late talking and communication through song or signs, and treats autism diagnoses as misreadings; late or absent speech always warrants developmental and hearing assessment. [source for the claim: Virtue 2003 extract; the referral advice is synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): “When did she first use words? How does she let you know what she wants now?” “What do her teachers say about how she's getting on?”
  • Watch for: the family explaining every sign through the label; a long gap since a professional last saw the child; regression. Working when you can name what is known, what is not, and what assessment would add.

4.5 Making a both-and referral for assessment

  • Purpose / when: when 4.4 shows signs, or when school or health services have already suggested assessment.
  • Steps: (1) State the reason in plain, non-pathologising language. (2) Present assessment as information the family keeps control of, not as a verdict on their beliefs. (3) Offer specific routes (GP or paediatrician; developmental, ADHD or autism service; speech and language therapy; audiology; educational psychologist via school) according to local pathways. (4) Offer to help prepare: what to bring, what to ask, how to talk about their beliefs if they wish. (5) Ask for consent to share information with the assessing service. (6) Follow up on what happened. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): “You can see him as an Indigo child and still find out how his attention works. One doesn't cancel the other.” “The aim is to make school work for him, the way you've been asking for.”
  • Watch for: agreement in the room followed by no appointment (check gently); the family shopping for a practitioner who will confirm the label instead; the assessment result being experienced as a loss (see 5.6). Working when the referral is made and the family feels it was their decision.

4.6 Giving the child a voice: consent, assent and the child's own view

  • Purpose / when: whenever the child or adolescent is seen, and before any plan affecting them.
  • Steps: (1) Explain in age-appropriate words who you are and what you will do, and seek the child's assent; get permission from the person legally entitled to give it. (2) See the child alone for part of the time where age and law allow. (3) Ask what they think about being called Indigo or Crystal: proud, embarrassed, burdened, confused. (4) Ask about friends, school and worries, including worries about having to be special or to save the world. (5) Feed back to parents only what the child agrees to, within safety limits. [source for burden of specialness: Whedon 2004; consent, assent and method: synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): “Some kids like having a special name, some don't. What's it like for you?” “Do you ever feel you have to be amazing all the time?”
  • Watch for: a child who repeats adult language with no sense of their own view; fear of disappointing a parent; grandiose or frightening beliefs about a mission or about other beings that distress the child. Working when the child can say something in their own words that the family hears.

4.7 Building a home and school plan from the family's own values

  • Purpose / when: once the picture is clear, whether or not a diagnosis follows.
  • Steps: (1) List the authors' parenting advice the family already follows (honesty, choices, shared decisions, joining the child's interests, little punishment, warmth) and affirm what is helping; much of it is ordinary good practice, as Whedon observes. (2) Note where structure is missing: researchers quoted on the topic say even gifted children with ADHD learn better with more structure. (3) Agree a small number of concrete routines (morning, homework, bedtime) framed as respecting the child's nature. (4) With consent, liaise with school about adjustments; if the family wants an alternative school, explore what the child needs from any setting. (5) Review in a few weeks. [source: Whedon 2004 for the advice; Hinshaw as summarised on Wikipedia, uncertain: secondary, unverified; plan: synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): “You already give him choices, which suits him. Could we add a picture timetable so the choices are clear?” “What would a good school day look like for her?”
  • Watch for: routines framed as crushing the child's spirit; school relationships breaking down; withdrawal from school without a plan for learning and friendships. Working when daily life is calmer and the child is learning.

4.8 Routing medical and medication decisions

  • Purpose / when: when medicine has been offered, refused, stopped, or is feared.
  • Steps: (1) Listen to the fear (for example, Virtue's warning that medicine dulls the child's sensitivity). (2) Do not advise starting, stopping or changing any medicine. (3) Encourage the family to take their questions and beliefs directly to the prescriber, and offer to help them write the questions down. (4) If a medicine has already been stopped without the prescriber, encourage prompt contact with the prescriber. [synthesis; claim attributed to Virtue 2003 extract]
  • Example language (illustrative): “That's an important worry, and it's one his doctor needs to hear. Shall we write down what you'd want to ask?”
  • Watch for: the therapist being drawn into taking sides; the family hearing silence as agreement. Working when the family and prescriber are talking.

4.9 Working with an adult who identifies as Indigo

  • Purpose / when: adult clients who use the label for themselves, often with stories of a hard childhood and school years (as Singler's ethnography reports).
  • Steps: (1) Explore meaning (4.1) and the life story the label organises. (2) Assess, without treating the belief as a symptom, for adult ADHD or autism never assessed, learning difficulties, childhood trauma or emotionally abusive parenting (a parallel some writers draw with narcissistic family dynamics), depression and anxiety. (3) Differentiate belief from illness: a shared spiritual identity held flexibly, with intact functioning, is not psychosis. Consider psychosis or mania only where there are other signs (new fixed beliefs out of keeping with the person's community, hallucinations causing distress, disorganisation, reduced need for sleep, pressured speech, risky spending), and refer to psychiatry if they are present. Consider dissociation or derealisation if the person describes feeling unreal or not of this world in a distressing way; OCD if there is anxious checking or rituals around being pure, chosen or on mission; grief if the identity emerged after a loss. (4) Where a religious or spiritual problem is the focus of care and no disorder is present, ICD-10-CM Z65.8 includes “Religious or spiritual problem” (the DSM-5-TR wording is uncertain: not verified). (5) Work towards a self-story that holds both the person's sense of difference and any unmet needs. [source: Singler 2017 publisher page; Wikipedia on narcissistic-parenting parallel, uncertain: secondary, unverified; Unbound Medicine ICD-10-CM Z65.8; method: synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): “It sounds as though the idea gave you a way to understand why you never fitted. I'd like to understand what that was like.” “Some people find that an ADHD assessment adds another piece to the story. Would that interest you?”
  • Watch for: the identity covering deep loneliness or shame; anger when the therapist does not confirm specialness; online communities that discourage assessment. Working when the person can value their difference and still seek what helps.

4.10 Checking costs, dependency and outside authorities

  • Purpose / when: whenever the family pays for readings, aura or energy work, courses, camps, consultations or products tied to the label.
  • Steps: (1) Ask what they have spent and on what, without judgement. (2) Ask who they turn to for decisions about the child, and whether any adviser has told them to avoid doctors, schools or particular people. (3) Ask whether the spending or advice causes strain or conflict. (4) Help the family set their own limits and keep decision-making with the parents and the right professionals. [source: Whedon 2004 for paid workshops and camps; Wikipedia on commercial criticism, uncertain: secondary, unverified; method: synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): “Roughly how much has gone on readings and courses this year? How does that sit with you?” “Who do you ask when you're unsure what to do for her?”
  • Watch for: advisers who claim to diagnose or treat; pressure to buy more to protect the child's gifts; isolation from extended family. Working when the parents feel in charge of their choices.

4.11 Online community and conspiracy entanglement

  • Purpose / when: when the family or adult client draws on online Indigo, starseed or Crystal groups.
  • Steps: (1) Ask what they get from the group (belonging, being believed). (2) Ask what the group says about doctors, schools, medicines and vaccines. Singler places the Indigo concept within wider fears about ADHD, autism and the pharmaceutical industry, and her book covers conspiracy theories. (3) Stay curious and non-shaming; ask how they weigh sources. (4) Encourage offline supports alongside online ones. Cross-refer 146 (starseed identity) and 151 (online creators). [source: Singler 2017 publisher page; Singler 2015 title as cited on Wikipedia, uncertain: secondary, unverified; method: synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): “What does the group say when someone mentions an assessment?” “How do you decide which advice to trust?”
  • Watch for: escalating distrust of all professionals; parasocial reliance on one creator; the child's care decided by strangers. Working when the family can hold the community and other supports together.

4.12 Safeguarding assessment

  • Purpose / when: when the label is used to refuse or delay assessment or treatment and the child is suffering, or when there are signs of a high-control upbringing (isolation from school and peers, harsh discipline, frightening beliefs pressed on the child, the child cast as having a mission they cannot meet).
  • Steps: (1) Separate belief from harm: the question is the child's health, development and safety. (2) Gather facts: what need is unmet, for how long, with what effect. (3) Discuss with the parents first where safe, using 4.3 and 4.5. (4) Consult your supervisor and your service's safeguarding lead. (5) Follow your local child-protection procedure and law when the threshold is met; record your reasoning. (6) Tell the family what you are doing and why, unless that would put the child at risk. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): “I respect what you believe about her. My concern is that she still isn't talking at four and hasn't been seen. I need to make sure she gets checked.”
  • Watch for: your own bias (reporting belief rather than harm, or holding back because of respect for belief). Working when the child's need is being met.

4.13 Holding the therapist's role

  • Purpose / when: when a parent asks the therapist to confirm the child is Indigo, read the child, or join in spiritual work; when the therapist also practises spiritual or energy work.
  • Steps: (1) Decline to identify, read or confirm, kindly and briefly. (2) Turn to the hope behind the request. (3) If you practise any spiritual or energy work outside therapy, keep it entirely separate and do not offer it to clients. (4) Keep self-disclosure about your own beliefs minimal and purposeful. (5) If the family wishes, involve a trusted spiritual adviser or community member in planning. [source: APA Ethics Code 3.05; method: synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): “That's not something I can tell you, and I don't think anyone can measure it. What would it give you to know?”
  • Watch for: pressure to choose sides between belief and science; feeling flattered into a guru role. Working when the family uses you for what therapy offers.

5. Handling problems

The Indigo and Crystal authors do not discuss clinical problems; the guidance below is [synthesis] unless a source is named. On harm: the scholarly sources cited here describe risks (denied impairments, avoided help, costly unhelpful services, grandiose or frightening beliefs passed to children) rather than documented individual cases, and Whedon judged the published parenting advice largely harmless in itself. [source: Whedon 2004; Waltz 2009 as summarised on Wikipedia, uncertain: secondary, unverified] Reports of children kept from assessment or treatment because of the label should be treated as allegations unless a court, regulator or reliable investigation confirms them.

  • 5.1 Parent refuses any assessment. Return to 4.3: find the fear. Offer a smaller step (a hearing test, a school observation, a GP check). Keep the door open and document the discussion. If the child is suffering and the need is serious, go to 4.12.
  • 5.2 Parent asks you to confirm the child is Indigo or Crystal. Use 4.13. Example (illustrative): “I can't measure that, but I can help you understand what she needs.”
  • 5.3 Co-parents disagree. One may hold the belief and the other reject it, sometimes in separation or custody disputes. See each parent, stay neutral on the belief, keep the focus on the child's needs, and be clear about what you can and cannot report to courts. [synthesis]
  • 5.4 Late speech in a child described as Crystal. Do not wait. Recommend prompt developmental, speech and language and hearing assessment, framed as both-and (4.5). [synthesis; claim of late speech from Virtue 2003 extract]
  • 5.5 The child is distressed by the label or the mission. Validate, separate the child's worth from performance, and with consent help parents ease expectations. Watch for fear of failing to bring in a new age, which Whedon flags as a burden. [source: Whedon 2004]
  • 5.6 A diagnosis feels like a loss. Parents may grieve the special-child story. Normalise the grief, and help them keep the strengths they saw (creativity, sensitivity) inside the new picture. The 2011 finding that the label went with more positive reading of ADHD behaviour suggests keeping that positive frame where possible. [source: Lench et al. 2011 as summarised on Wikipedia, uncertain: secondary, unverified]
  • 5.7 Rupture: the family feels judged. Name it, apologise for anything that came across as mockery, restate your respect for their beliefs and your focus on the child. Metaphors that cast autistic people as wholly other can distance and stigmatise, so be careful with your own language too. [source: Albury, Hektoen International; repair: synthesis]
  • 5.8 Stuck: the label explains everything. Shift from explanation to function: “Whatever the reason, what would help mornings go better?” Track small practical gains.
  • 5.9 Non-adherence: referral made, appointment not kept. Ask what got in the way, without blame; offer practical help; agree a review date.
  • 5.10 Adult client: grandiosity, sleeplessness or new fixed beliefs. Assess for mania or psychosis as in 4.9, involve psychiatry promptly if present, and continue to respect the belief itself.
  • 5.11 An adviser tells the family to avoid doctors or school. Explore the advice and its source; support the parents' own judgement; if the advice is leading to harm, see 4.12. Cross-refer 111 (angel therapy) and 108 (channelling, including Kryon).
  • 5.12 The therapist's own reaction. Notice contempt or over-identification; take it to supervision. Spiritual and religious competency training helps here (Vieten et al. 2013, uncertain: not verified).
  • 5.13 Overwhelm in the family. Narrow the agenda to one goal, check parental mental health and support, and offer referral for parenting support or the parent's own therapy if wanted.

Sources

Pages:

Books and articles cited (details as reported in the pages above):

  • Tappe, N. A. (1982). Enhancing Your Life thru Color; (1986) Understanding Your Life Thru Color. [uncertain: publisher not verified]
  • Carroll, L., & Tober, J. (1999). The Indigo Children. [uncertain: publisher not verified].
  • Virtue, D. (2001). The Care and Feeding of Indigo Children.
  • Leland, J. (2006, 12 January). Are They Here to Save the World? The New York Times. [uncertain: secondary, unverified]
  • Waltz, M. (2009). From Changelings to Crystal Children. Journal of Religion, Disability & Health 13(2), 114–128. [uncertain: secondary, unverified]
  • Lench, H. C., Levine, L. J., & Whalen, C. K. (2011). Exasperating or Exceptional? Parents' Interpretations of Their Child's ADHD Behavior. Journal of Attention Disorders 17(2), 141–151. [uncertain: secondary, unverified]
  • Singler, B. (2015). Big Bad Pharma: The Indigo Child Concept and Biomedical Conspiracy Theories. Nova Religio 19(2), 17–29. [uncertain: secondary, unverified]
  • Vieten, C., et al. (2013). Spiritual and religious competencies for psychologists. [uncertain: not verified]
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