As some of you know, I have been in school to get my certification in Behavior Therapy, specifically, in ABA therapy. I have decided to take time off from that right now. I decided to sit in on one of Ty's old therapists for the day to see what "a day in the life" of a behavior therapist looked like. To be honest, I think it's all too fresh and raw for me to be truly effective at this point. I saw a total of four kids and each had a one hour session (Ty always had two hour sessions). One little girl had such bowel problems from withholding that she moans and groans during therapy and will most likely need surgery soon. I asked the therapist if she was on a special diet, if she had been to a DAN doctor, if the parents were treating her biomedically. The therapist wasn't sure at what capacity she was being treated for it outside of a mainstream physician. I wondered what steps were being taken on all the children to heal their physical symptoms, and again, the therapist was unsure. She knew some of her kids were seeing a DAN doctor. During the sessions I found myself getting so pissed off and choked up on the inside. I was screaming (in my head...with much more cursing than I will write down here) but this is what my head was thinking, "how did this happen to these kids!!? How come no one gives a shit!!? When will society at large get involved!!????"
Then I thought about my own child (almost all these kids were older than him). I wondered about what he will look like when he will be their age. I was depressed the whole way home.
I have decided it's not a good idea for me to get involved on such a personal level with behavior therapy, at this point. I have too much invested emotionally in this right now. I firmly believe in biomedical for the majority of cases and don't know how I could work with a parent that was not seeking that course for their child. I'm 100% sure I would not want to work with a family that did not have their child on one of the diets, even if it was just The Feingold.
I will continue my Rescue Angel work and help specific families that ask for my input. Right now, I am best suited for that. I believe in behavior therapy. I think I could be good at it. Not right now, though.
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by LJ Goes
I just put my son Noah to bed. His brother and sister went into his room
and showered him with kisses. Then I tucked him in. It went like this....
2 comments:
Very interesting because I was considering getting certified too. I felt like I could do ABA with other people's kids...I just have a hard time doing it with my own. I never thought about the fact that many of the kids probably aren't given the chance to "heal". It would be devastating to see and not be able to do anything. Maybe, in time, you could do it...in the meantime, you do great work by writing your blog and helping all of us in cyberspace. :)
Oh my gosh, I can't tell you how much you just described exactly how I feel too! You and I are on the very same wavelength with this! I have taken two of the three courses needed for BCaBA certification and I feel so much the same way.
My son is recovering with Andy Cutler's protocol, dietary intervention, and supplements and I just can't stand to see kids who I know could be helped that I cannot reach...and tell me, how freaking hard is it, I mean, is it even possible to help a kid without it? I mean, to know that they could slide backwards any moment with the wrong food or because their brains are full of metals?
Honest to God, my kid was HORRIBLY aggressive, violent and ill and I dragged him back from the near dead...I mean, if one could say he was living, it wasn't much of a life. And he's completely different now, I mean "jump up and down and praise God" changed...happy, like he never had been before. Isn't that what we want? But can it really happen with just ABA?
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