Kicked Out of Therapy
The family therapist said we didn't need to come back for a while. We just don't have enough issues.
He was very skeptical about the possible bipolar diagnosis. One piece of evidence is that Sunny's behavior is better (less pouting, more focus) in school than it is at home. His reasoning was that true bipolar disorder doesn't differentiate like that. Acting better at school is just a very common six-year-old trait... my book on six-year-olds says as much.
He thinks that the pathologized behavior in Sunny's paperwork comes from anxiety about identity and stability. Coming from the foster care system, it would be unlikely, and even troubling, if Sunny didn't have that anxiety.
I scheduled another session in a couple of months, on the theory that maybe more issues will come up after school starts. We're also seeing the psychiatrist in a week. Our plan is going to be to start tapering off the medication after a month in school.
This was the first time my husband has ever had therapy.
"That was kind of fun! Maybe I'll do it myself!"
"Sure... just remember, if you do it for yourself, it's not covered by Medicaid."
"Oh..."
Foster Care System Perspectives
4 comments:
Well, I'm glad to hear they don't think he has bi-polar. I'm glad to hear that the therapist doesn't feel as much therapy is necessary. But, call me jaded, I worry about the not having enough issues comment. You're a new family. A very new family. Even if things are smooth, there are likely fears and worries underneath. I don't know. Maybe I'm too wrapped into my own experience with Slugger to imagine it any other way.
The therapist did ask if we felt like:
a) we were in a storm
b) we saw a storm approaching
c) we saw a storm receding
d) we were in the eye of the storm
And we couldn't answer. I just don't know... maybe we're still in the honeymoon period, maybe everything is really going to be this easy. I'm trying to stay neither optimistic nor pessimistic.
But right now there's not any behaviors to work on. It's hard to say "we want therapy to get Sunny to stop doing X or start doing Y".
Right now we're going to wait and schedule another session as soon as anything else breaks the surface.
This therapist office specializes in foster care kids and family systems stuff, maybe we would have had a different session with another type of therapist. But I've heard too many other parents complain that more individualized play therapy sessions weren't doing anything for their kids past a certain point. I think Sunny's play therapy helped him before his transition, but I wonder if it would really do much for him now.
Boy, I'm glad I found you.
It sounds like you're on top of things - no more, no less. But believe me, if you could answer firmly on any of those questions, that would have been a good indicator you needed more time with the therapist.
Wonderful news. I hope he doesn't need on-going therapy again at least before he's in his mid-teens, and preferably never. Realistically he may ask for or need it re: family of origin issues when he hits adolescence.
Some groups give art therapy for four or six week group therapy sessions at a reasonable cost. I found them to be a good tool for where my kid's head was, and I like the non-intrusiveness of it.
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