Michael was referred to Counseling4Kids due to a history of physical abuse and neglect by his mother.   Michael, 11 years old, struggled with depressed mood, isolation, fighting with peers at school and in his foster homes, anger outbursts, oppositional behaviors, tantrums, and difficulties concentrating in school. 

The assigned C4K therapist at first had difficulties initiating treatment as phone calls were often not returned and appointments canceled.  Michael was resistant to talking and often refused to answer questions or engage with his therapist.  He would say, “you ask too many questions,” “that’s personal” or “why do you want to know?” while looking around the home in an anxious and suspicious manner.

One day the therapist asked Michael to spend his session time taking a walk in the neighborhood.  Once out of the house, Michael’s entire demeanor changed and he was open to engage and share thoughts and feelings. During a review of his trauma history, his therapist learned that Michael identified the origin all the negative things in his life to the day when Hurricane Katrina hit his hometown in Mississippi. Michael recalled how he, his mother and older brother were forced to leave their home and extended family members and relocate with no time to say good bye or pack up belongings. He became sad and tearful as he spoke about his grandmother, cousins, aunts and uncles he had not seen in almost five years. Michael shared his belief that the abuse would not have happened if his mother had the support of her family around her.

The model of treatment employed with Michael was Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT).   Over the next two months, his therapist engaged with him and his foster mother to build on the components of TF-CBT.  Michael’s anxiety and negative behaviors decreased as he was able to identify how his thoughts and feelings directly impacted his behaviors. During this time, Michael’s biological mother was working hard to get her son back.  She visited with him regularly.  The last day the therapist met with Michael at his foster home before reunification, she took along a Christmas gift from Counseling4Kids. It was a soccer ball, which Michael loved!  Michael was reunified with his mother at court on December 21st, and he stated it was the best Christmas gift he’d even been given.

Although Michael and his mother now lived 20 miles from his foster home, his therapist was able to follow him and continue treatment to support the newly reunified family.  Michael’s family was able to get off of Medi-Cal three months after reunification due to mother finding consistent employment as a nurse. In reviewing their progress, the therapist pointed out to mother and Michael that they had both made tremendous strides and were using many of the new skills they had acquired in treatment.  In addition to this reassurance, she gave mother resources for low-fee mental health services that she could access in the community in the future, if the need arose.  Michael smiled broadly in his last session, and stated that he now knows why his therapist “asked all those questions” and “wanted to know his business”.  It was to help him and make him feel better.